Biocodicological analysis of parchments from manuscript books and archives offers unprecedented insight into the materiality of medieval literacy. Using ZooMS for animal species identification, we explored almost the entire library and all the preserved single leaf charters of a single medieval Cistercian monastery (Orval Abbey, Belgium). Systematic non-invasive sampling of parchment collagen was performed on every charter and on the first bifolium from every quire of the 118 codicological units composing the books (1490 samples in total). Within the genuine production of the Orval scriptorium (26 units), a balanced use of calfskin (47.1%) and sheepskin (48.5%) was observed, whereas calfskin was less frequent (24.3%) in externally produced units acquired by the monastery (92 units). Calfskin was preferably used for higher quality manuscripts while sheepskin tends to be the standard choice for ‘ordinary’ manuscript book production. This finding is consistent with thirteenth-century parchment accounts from Beaulieu Abbey (England) where calfskin supply was more limited and its price higher. Our study reveals that the making of archival documents does not follow the same pattern as the production of library books. Although the five earliest preserved charters are made of calfskin, from the 1230s onwards, all charters from Orval are written on sheepskin.

对来自手稿书籍和档案的羊皮纸的生物编码分析为中世纪识字的重要性提供了前所未有的洞察力。使用 ZooMS 进行动物物种鉴定，我们几乎探索了整个图书馆以及一座中世纪西多会修道院（比利时奥瓦尔修道院）的所有保存的单叶宪章。对构成书籍的 118 个编纂学单位（总共 1490 个样本）中的每个章程和第一个双叶书进行了系统的羊皮胶原蛋白非侵入性采样。在真正生产的 Orval 写字间（26 个单位）中，观察到小牛皮 (47.1%) 和羊皮 (48.5%) 的平衡使用，而小牛皮在修道院获得的外部生产单位中的使用频率较低 (24.3%) (92单位）。小牛皮更适合用于高质量的手稿，而羊皮往往是“普通”手稿书籍制作的标准选择。这一发现与来自 Beaulieu Abbey（英格兰）的 13 世纪羊皮纸记载一致，当时小牛皮供应更为有限且价格较高。我们的研究表明，档案文件的制作与图书馆书籍的制作并不遵循相同的模式。虽然保存最早的五张宪章都是用小牛皮制成的，但从 1230 年代开始，奥瓦尔的所有宪章都是用羊皮写成的。我们的研究表明，档案文件的制作与图书馆书籍的制作并不遵循相同的模式。虽然保存最早的五张宪章都是用小牛皮制成的，但从 1230 年代开始，奥瓦尔的所有宪章都是用羊皮写成的。我们的研究表明，档案文件的制作与图书馆书籍的制作并不遵循相同的模式。虽然保存最早的五张宪章都是用小牛皮制成的，但从 1230 年代开始，奥瓦尔的所有宪章都是用羊皮写成的。