parchment [ME] This comes from Old French parchemin, a blend of late Latin pergamina ‘writing material from Pergamum’ and Parthica pellis ‘Parthian skin’ (a kind of scarlet leather). The use of treated animal skin as a writing material, when papyrus was the usual material (see paper), was traditionally said to have been invented by King Eumenes II of Pergamum (r.197–158 bc).