Word: vellum
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...either edge of the U. S. are two of the greatest private libraries in the world. The Huntington Library in Pasadena and the Morgan Library in Manhattan are keen rivals. But in illuminated vellum manuscripts of the 9th to the 16th centuries the Morgan Library stands supreme. By the terms of the Elder Morgan's will they have been available to duly accredited scholars for many years. They are not, nor can they ever be, available to the public. In 1924 when the Morgan Library was handed over to a group of trustees as a semi-public institution...
...week the public could view the manuscripts and cough its head off without danger of damage. To the Public Library under armed guard were moved 150 of the Morgan treasures to be placed in cloth-lined cases, each with a wet sponge in a little dish to keep the vellum leaves from cracking...
What the nuns and the gapers liked best was Morgan Manuscript No. 1, the great Ashburnham Gospels (probably executed between 825-850), lettered in pure gold on purple vellum leaves, bound in golden plates set with ancient rubies and emeralds. Even more valuable for theological students was a case of 9th & 10th Century Coptic manuscripts, one in its original covers, dug from the edge of an oasis by Arabs searching for tillable soil. There was much more to dazzle the imagination: the purple vellum Gospels supposed to have been given to Henry VIII by Pope Leo X; the 10th Century...
...nigh perfect imitation not only of the manuscript writing and illumination but also of the binding. It would be impossible for the casual observer to distinguish it from the genuine article: the binding was of old, dried leather, the clasp of tarnished brass, and the pages of real-looking vellum...
...only 250 copies, printed on Japanese Vellum...