漫话英伦：英国的法写在牛皮上

choi

BBC Chinese, Feb 19, 2016
www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/uk/2016/02/160219_britain_focus_vellum

, which is basically a shorter translation of

Chris Stokel-Walker, Why Is the UK Still Printing Its Laws on Vellum?  BBC, Feb 15, 2016.
www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35569281

Note:
(a) "Dig into the archives of the UK's parliament and pull out the oldest extant law and you'll find a very old document. It was first inscribed in 1497."
(i) Acts. UK Parliament, undated.
www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/acts/

Quote:

"Bills are introduced in either the House of Commons or House of Lords * * * When both Houses have agreed on the content of a Bill it is then presented to the reigning monarch for approval (known as Royal Assent).  Once Royal Assent is given a Bill becomes an Act of Parliament and is law.

"The UK Houses of Parliament changed from hand writing original Acts of Parliament [1497-1849] to printing them in 1849. They are printed on vellum, and still are to this day.

"The Parliamentary Archives has copies of original Acts from 1497.

(ii) Some Early Acts. UK Parliament, undated
www.parliament.uk/about/living-h ... ds/some-early-acts/
(A) "The first Act stored at the Palace in 1497"
* The operative words are "stored at the Palace."
* Earlier Acts of Parliament are extant.
* Why 1497 then? It is only because Parliamentary Archives started that year.

Parliamentary Archives
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_Archives
("The archive of the House of Lords originated in March 1497, when the then Clerk, Master Richard Hatton, having prepared the Parliament Roll for that session for transfer to Chancery, retained in the House of Lords the complete series of sixteen enacted Bills, or Original Acts, from which he had made the enrolment. Since then, this series has been preserved continuously among the records of the House of Lords")
See also (a)(iii) below.
(B)
* worsted
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worsted
(The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk)
* worsted (n; Middle English: from Worstead, the name of a parish in Norfolk, England):
"1: a fine smooth yarn spun from combed long-staple wool.
1.1 fabric made from worsted yarn, having a close-textured surface with no nap"
http://www.oxforddictionaries.co ... can_english/worsted

Take notice that the first vowel is pronounced differently in England and US. In the former, it is like that of "foot" -- a short vowel (food has a long vowel). I know, because I switched "ENG (US)" to "ENG (UK)."  In the latter (US), the first vowel of the word is pronounced like that of "word."  
(C) Henry VII of England
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_VII_of_England
(Henry Tudor; 1457 – 1509; King of England 1485-1509; a Lancastrian who won Wars of the Roses; the first monarch of the House of Tudor; father and predecessor of Henry VIII)

(iii) 1497 to the 19th century. UK Parliament, undated (under the heading "History of the Parliamentary Archives")
http://www.parliament.uk/about/l ... th-century-arhives/
("1497[:] Clerk Richard Hatton retained 16 original Acts in the House of Lords")
(A) History of the House of Lords. UK Parliament, undated
http://www.parliament.uk/busines ... story-of-the-lords/
("14th century: Two distinct Houses of Parliament emerge. Representatives from the towns and counties began to meet separately as the House of Commons. Archbishops, bishops and sometimes abbots and priors (Lords Spiritual) and noblemen (Lords Temporal) form the House of Lords")
(B) However, it is generally accepted that the year is 1332 (rather than a vague "14th century").

Rise of the Commons. UK Parliament, undated (under the heading: "Birth of the England Parliament")
http://www.parliament.uk/about/l ... view/riseofcommons/
(Edward III; 1332; annually)

Table of contents is in the left column. For instance, the origin of the Commons is discussed in the preceding "Changes under Edward I."

choi

(b) "Original copies of the Magna Carta, signed more than 800 years ago on vellum, still exist."

Magna Carta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta
(is a charter agreed by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on June 15, 1215)

Quote: "In the 21st century, four exemplifications of the original 1215 charter remain in existence, held by the British Library and the cathedrals of Lincoln and Salisbury. There are also a handful of the subsequent charters in public and private ownership, including copies of the 1297 charter in both the United States and Australia. The original charters were written on parchment sheets using quill pens, in heavily abbreviated medieval Latin, which was the convention for legal documents at that time. Each was sealed with the royal great seal (made of beeswax and resin sealing wax): very few of the seals have survived.

(c) "Adrian Brown, the director of parliamentary archives, who oversees a collection including 8km-worth of physical records of parchment, paper and photographs in the 325ft tall Victoria Tower at the western edge of the Palace of Westminster.  In the tower, scrolls of vellum are piled up in a vast repository, spooled in a range of different sizes, looking superficially much as they would have done hundreds of years ago."

Victoria Tower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Tower
(houses the Parliamentary Archives)

Quote: "The Victoria Tower was purpose-built as a 'fireproof repository for books and documents,' as required by the competition to rebuild the Palace of Westminster after the fire of Oct 16, 1834, which had destroyed the building and almost all of the records of the House of Commons. The records of the House of Lords survived the conflagration because they were, at the time, stored in the Jewel Tower, which was at a distance from the main building and still stands across the road from the Victoria Tower.

(d) "Vellum is made from calf-skin. The word shares its derivation with the word 'veal' from the old French 'velin' (Collins Dictionary) or 'veelin' (Petit Robert)."

vellum (n; Middle English velym, from Anglo-French velim, veeslin, from *veelin, adjective, of a calf, from [Anglo-French noun masculine] veel calf— more at VEAL; First Known Use  15th century)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vellum

(e) To make vellum from calf skin: "The lime causes the hair follicles to expand, making it easier to scrape fat and fur from the skin. This is done with a curved-bladed knife called a 'scudder.'  The prepared skin is then washed and stretched onto a wooden frame, and scraped further with a lunar knife to raise the nap and create a more even thickness. Finally the skin is left to dry"
(i) The scudder as a knife is not found in Wikipedia or any English dictionary. I found just one Web page about scudder, written by the same one mentioned in this BBC report ("calligrapher and illuminator Patricia Lovett").

Patricia Lovett, Making Vellum (Calfskin) and Parchment (Sheepskin). The Traditional Crafts Blog, Sept 19, 2012.
thttps://raditionalcraftsblog.blo ... -and-parchment.html

Quote:

(A) "the earliest vellum books in existence are 3rd century AD.

"William Cowley in Buckinghamshire is now the only parchmenters in the UK and they continue to use traditional methods to treat the skin. They supply the world in quality skins.

(B) "Goat, sheep and calf skins are selected at abbatoirs for quality and, once at the parchmenters, are first soaked in a lime solution to expand the hair follicles and treat the skins.

"Once ready, the skins are the [sic; should be 'then'] placed over a beamer and a special knife called a scudder is used to remove the hair.

(ii) Scudder is an English surname, who origin and meaning have nothing to do with vellum-making or a knife.

(f) I stop reading the BBC report, short of electronic storage and archive. Before I let go, here is one more item to behold:

parchment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parchment
(It is not tanned, and is thus different from leather. This makes it more suitable for writing on, but leaves it very reactive to changes in relative humidity; section 1 Parchment and vellum; section 2 History: Pergamon)