In reading about the Konungsbók (Codex Regius), it says that it is written on
vellum. I looked in the dictionary, and it said that vellum is sheepskin,
calfskin or kitskin (even though the word "vellum" comes actually from the
word for "calf", related to "veal" etc.).
Does anyone know if the Konungsbok manuscript is actually calfskin? What is
the most common skin used for Icelandic manuscripts? And what are the
advantages of calfskin, it is smoother than the others, or just bigger?
It seems that it would have been much easier in Iceland to find sheepskin
than calfskin. For a quarto size book with about 100 pages, I figure one
would have needed about 12 animal skins.