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In the thirteenth century, vellum (or parchment) was a valuable commodity. One of the stages in making a manuscript was to prepare the blank leaves of vellum. Animal skins for making vellum were often a by-product left over by the abbey butcher. However, the Carthusians never ate meat, therefore they had no butcher and no vellum. The Benedictines, by contrast, were probably seldom short of vellum.
The initial on this detail of folio 183v shows a monk examining a sheet offered for sale by a professional parchment-maker who has other sheets rolled up under his arm. Behind is the wooden frame on which the wet skin is stretched and scraped with a curved knife, called a lunellum, shown propped up in front.
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