Note 82 — Chapter III
Reading edition
The Precentor's accounts of the Church of Norwich contain the following items:—1300, 5 dozen parchment, 2s. 6d., 40 lbs. of ink, 4s. 4d., 1 gallon of vini decrili, 3s., 4 lbs. of corporase, 4 lbs. of galls, 2 lbs. of gum arab, 3s. 4d., to make ink. I dismiss these facts with the simple question they naturally excite: that if parchment was so very scarce, what on earth did the monk want with all this ink?