parchment

A thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin. Its most common use is as the pages of a book, codex or manuscript, and it was the chief material for writing on until the late Middle Ages.

Parchment is distinct from leather in that it is not tanned, but stretched, scraped, and dried under tension, creating a stiff white, yellowish or translucent animal skin.

The finer qualities of parchment are called vellum.