Pergamentille

Pergamentille is a term used in codicology to describe miniature parchment leaves inserted into medieval manuscripts. The name derives from pergamentum, the Latin word for parchment, with the diminutive suffix -ille, signaling “little parchment.” In some descriptions, pergamentille may also be encountered as a regional or historical modifier for such slips.

These inserts are typically rectangular or square, measuring roughly 3 to 8 cm in length and 1 to 2.5 cm in width. They were made from the same animal skins as the manuscript’s primary parchment—calf, sheep, or goat—and prepared to a smooth writing surface capable of taking ink or pigment. Their edges are often clean-cut, with production oriented toward durability within the binding.

Historically, pergamentille are attested in a limited corpus of manuscripts from the 12th to the 15th centuries, especially in monastic scriptoria of the Holy Roman Empire, northern Italy, and the Iberian Peninsula. They served as portable gloss notes, cross-reference tags, marginalia, or placeholders for missing text during binding. In some cases they functioned as brief annotations that could be consulted without opening the main text.

Production and use: Pergamentille were cut from sheets of parchment and sometimes pasted into the gutter or attached with minimal adhesives; in other instances they were sewn into the binding. Scribes used them to store brief annotations, ownership marks, or to catalogue illustrations and glosses, effectively extending the manuscript’s usable surface.

Modern scholarship treats pergamentille as a relatively obscure practice. The term may reflect regional cataloguing habits or a subtype of marginalia, and surviving evidence varies by region and period. Further comparative study could clarify their prevalence and precise functions across manuscript traditions.