**Perfice munus.** – Monthly journal of pastoral life for the clergy, begun in Turin in 1926 by the publisher Roberto Berruti, under the direction of expert theologians, canonists, and liturgists.
It addresses all ecclesiastical matters that are especially important for priests in the performance of their duties: acts of the Holy See, pastoral theology, liturgy, canon law, civil law, art, hygiene, and sacred music. The variety of subjects led, in 1930, to the creation of an additional section covering minor rubrics, streamlining the main part; this resulted in a second monthly issue, making *Perfice munus* a fortnightly publication. In 1939, the additional section was replaced by *Medicina e morale*, also monthly; the other rubrics of the additional section were incorporated into the general part of the periodical. From 1951 onward, *Perfice munus*, remaining a fortnightly, was divided into three parts: I. Formation and priestly activity; II. Medicine and morality; III. Resources for pastoral action.
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**Pergamen.** – *Pergamen* or *cartapeco* (in Latin, *membrana*) is animal skin tanned in a process that, according to Pliny the Elder (*Natural History*, XIII, 11), citing Varro, was discovered by Eumenes II, King of Pergamum, when, at the beginning of the 2nd century B.C., Ptolemy, King of Egypt, forbade the export of papyrus to prevent the Library of Pergamum from surpassing that of Alexandria. In reality, leather had long been used for writing by the Egyptians, Hebrews, Assyrians, Persians, and Greeks, who later also called other writing materials *diphtetai*. However, the technique adopted in Pergamum and the resulting industry were undoubtedly those that gave their name to *pergamenum* (parchment).
Generally, sheepskin, cowhide, or goat hide was used, which, after thorough scraping, was immersed in hot water to remove grease, then dried and rubbed with powdered chalk without further tanning, and finally cleaned with pumice stone or another substitute. The resulting material was admirably suited for writing, offering a smooth and sufficiently durable surface that could be used on either side; moreover, it preserved far better than papyrus, resisting external influences well and, unlike papyrus, could easily be erased, which contributed to its widespread adoption. Indeed, among manuscripts on parchment, especially during the Middle Ages, numerous palimpsests (q.v.) are found—manuscripts in which the original text had been scraped away to write a new one.
Initially, parchment was used for writing letters, documents, and brief notes; later, it was employed for book production. However, its industry spread slowly and took three centuries to triumph completely over papyrus, whose use gradually declined from the 4th century onward. Undoubtedly, rolls and sheets of papyrus were still known in the 11th century in the Papal Chancery, but these must be considered exceptions, existing only at a high price due to the scarcity and rarity of the material.
It is now established that the first parchment books were prepared in the form of rolls, though no classical examples survive (it is well known that rolls were widely used by the Hebrews, who employed them for their sacred book, the *Torah*). Their length generally matched that of the skin used, but when necessary, longer rolls were sewn together. In early times, parchment dyed purple was also used to cover papyrus rolls, and this was certainly the first appearance of binding. However, the roll format must have been cumbersome and inconvenient, as by the 2nd century A.D., books began to be made in the form of the ancient wax tablets (from which they also took the name *codices* or *caudices*). The oldest surviving codices on parchment date to the 3rd or 4th century A.D.; as for legal documents, the oldest preserved examples date to the 7th century. Among the codices, some were written in gold or silver letters, and some of these have survived since the 6th century, such as the famous Silver Codex of the Greek Gospels of Ulfilas in Uppsala, and in Italy, the Purple Codex of the Cathedral of Rossano Calabro. Many other purple codices survive from the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries, particularly from the Carolingian period, when entire volumes were written with multicolored inks—blue, green, violet, yellow—especially for coloring initials, along with red, which in the oldest parchment codices was used particularly in opening lines, titles, and subscriptions (*colophons*). Red later became standard for initials, titles, and chapter and paragraph headings (hence *rubrica* and *rubricare*), and sometimes for marginal notes, signatures, and references, more extensively in liturgical books.
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