Medieval parchment often bears traces of animal hair. Little black dots on one side of a parchment leaf are often the hair follicles from the living animal. When turning animal hide into parchment, the parchment maker used a large blade to scrape off as much of the hair as possible. But traces of the hair follicles frequently remained. Skilled parchment makers could produce very fine leaves with few traces of hair follicles, but these sheets were often more expensive and sold for more precious m