[Book] Coffee with a Codex: The Voynich Manuscript (Facsimile)

[LisaFaginDavis]

I'll also add that in terms of understanding something about the origins of the manuscript, sheepskin vs. cowskin is not at all helpful. If it had been goatskin, that would have pointed towards Italy, but alas, no such luck. Cowskin doesn't rule out anything, including Italy, but it doesn't rule anything IN either.

[Jorge_Stolfi]

I would definitely not describe the Voynich parchment as "vellum" because that gives a misimpression about the quality of the parchment. It is not high-end, well-prepared parchment.

So I won't have to change "parchment" back to "vellum" everywhere.  Phew!

All the best, --jorge

[ReneZ]

From what I remember of the time when the parchment detection was done by the university of York, there was a secret hope that it would be goat parchment, as that would point to Italy. Sheep, which was not expected, would have pointed more to Britain.
Cow was used also in Italy, but it would have been relatively more in Northern Italy than in the South.

From a discussion with Abigail Quandt, I also remember that the usage of vellum vs. parchment has changed over time, so in older publications one might find other preferences, and furthermore it depends on the part of the world. In the UK there would still be different preferences (but I don't know which).

Parchment is the safer term.