Welcome to Scrolls in the Age of the Book, a module in the series The Book: Histories

Across Time and Space. In this online learning experiecne, we will introduce you to the
making and use of scrolls in the European Middle Ages. The codex, with its portability
and instant access to any place in the text, became the dominant container for writing
after the 4th century BCE, but scrolls continued to be made. Why and how did the scroll
format remain popular and relevant in the age of the codex? We propose four main
reasons, which account for essentially every kind of scroll that still exists today. In
investigsating this, will see and examine in detail a number of beautiful objects, and
come to understand the thinking of those who chose the scroll format for their texts.
This module features four main units, each of which is based on one of the reasons for
scroll-making:
1.

Scrolls of indeterminate length

2.

Scrolls in long format (objects whose contents recommend the format of a

scroll)

3.

Ceremonial and archaizing scrolls

4.

Portable scrolls
Scrolls in the Age of the Book also features a guided tour of an exhibition on Harvard
Universitys collection of medieval scrolls, held at Houghton Library, Harvards special
collections library, in Spring 2014. Each scroll featured in the exhibit has been fully
digitized by Harvard Librarys Preservation Services division, and participants will have
the opportunity to interact with them in unprecedented fashion using Mirador, a stateof-the-art web application developed by Harvard and Stanford Universities.
What is a scroll, and what is the purpose of such a technology in the age of the Book?
This module presents some of his insights on the fascinating history of a writing support
that predates the book and persists to the present.

There are two broad methods for presenting parchment or paper in the Middle Ages. One
may gather the pages one on top of the other, folding them and sewing them together in
their middle in order to create a booklet. This gathering, which is called a quire (from
the Latin word for four), tends to comprise four bifolia, which are folded in order to create
eight folios and sixteen pages. These quires may then be sewn with other gatherings in
order to create a book. Alternatively, one may sew pages end upon end to create a long,
continuous sheet of parchment: we call this object a scroll.
The Latin term of a scroll is volumen, which means a roll of sheets, although the
termrotulus, roll, can also be used to describe the object. The scroll tends to be wound
around a central rod, which was known as the umbilicus. If a scroll became too large, so
as to become unwieldy, it could be cut into sections. A section was known as
a tomos(plural tomoi), which is a Greek word coming from temnein, the verb to cut.
Romans followed the Greek terminology in this case, so they used the word tomus,
(pl. tomi) to describe a segment of a larger work.
Scrolls appear in a number of cultures, both eastern and western, and they perform a
variety of functions. In addition to being repositories of text, they may also function
apotropaically or prophylactically; that is to say, they can be used as magical objects to
ward off demons, illness or disease.
A scroll, broadly speaking, is a number of sheets of parchment, papyrus, or paper
attached end to end, but the writing on the scroll may either run in perpendicular or
parallel lines with respect to the length of the scroll. Moreover, this text may appear in a
varying number of columns depending upon the text and its expected use. Medieval
scrolls, for example, tend to be written vertically and read top to bottom in a single
column of text.
In the fourth century, the codex (i.e., the "book") begins to take prominence over the
scroll, perhaps as a result of the rise of Christianity and the need to carry around the
Gospels or the Letters of Paul. The codex is more efficientit is easier to carry, and it is
easier to find ones place in the text more quicklyso why does the scroll remain popular
into the Middle Ages, and can we identify categories of things that tend to be written on
scrolls? These are the main questions for exploration in this segment of the "The Book:
Histories Across Time and Space."
Transkript 1-4 (transkript 2 slika)

Documents of Indeterminate Length

Perhaps the most abundant, and most important, scrolls within the category of those
scrolls which are indeterminate with respect to their length are those texts known as
"mortuary rolls." Mortuary rolls, which were most prevalent in France and England in
the High Middle Ages, are scrolls announcing the death of important members of a
monastery or a convent (such as the abbot or abbess). These announcements, which
included the name of the deceased along with a petition for prayers, were carried by a
rolliger (a "roll-bearer") or a rotularius (a "secretary or notary") to associated and
affiliated monasteries, convents, cathedrals, parishes, etc.
As the scroll traveled, someone at each site to which the scroll arrived would inscribe the
name of the deceased into their registries of departed religious, and he or she would then
add names and prayer requests for members of their own communities to the traveling
roll. The mortuary roll would thus grow in length as clergy at each stop added additional
names and additional prayers. Naturally, the total length of the scroll would not be
known until after the final stop.
Mortuary rolls are important for historians interested in the development of medieval
handwriting both within geographic regions and over time. Moreover, scholars of
geography, institutional affiliations, and medieval trade can use the data of travel
provided by the scrolls to define routes and webs of communal interaction. Since the
matters of paleography, origin, and provenance are important to the history of the book,
these scrolls are great resources for and great exemplars of the concerns expressed in the
broader "History of the Book" proIn addition to mortuary rolls as scrolls indeterminate
with respect to length, record-keeping rolls tended to follow this idea of indeterminate

length. Think, for example, of the verb "enroll," such as "to enroll in college"; recordkeeping rolls could be exactly this, documents containing the expanding record of items
such as members of a university or of some other group.
In England, since the 13th century, there are two main kinds of rolls: chancery rolls,
which are legal rolls, and exchequer rolls, which are financial records. Chancery rolls
keep legal matters, such as patent rolls (open letters) which contain the royal decrees of
lords, kings, etc. Close rolls keep grants and decrees directed at individuals rather than
groups. Fine rolls are lists of financial exchanges for privileges. Today, the title "keeper of
the rolls" (for "keeper" read "master") is given to the second highest legal authority in
England.
English exchequer rolls represent rolls of annual accounts of money owed to the king.
These rolls are constructed slightly different than the traditional roll/scroll. Called "pipe
rolls," these rolls look a bit more like a presentation flip chart inasmuch as they are
bound along their top like a kind of booklet, and then they are rolled up to fit into
pigeonholes for storage. While there are many record-keeping rolls in the Middle Ages,
we will not spend too much time on these since were are more concerned with what we
might call "literary" scrolls, or scrolls containing a text of some sort.
Transkript 5 (Detailed record),6-7

Portability
In the Introduction, we considered a number of reasons for why medieval scribes might
choose to create a scroll rather than a codex. If you think back, remember that the codex
supposedly overtook the scroll in the fourth century C.E. because the codex proved to be
an easier, more portable, tool for the conveyance of text.
Here now, when we think about the idea of portability, we are talking about something
a little different. If, say, you were a cantor performing a liturgical celebration in
procession or an actor holding a small scroll to speak your part (a rle in French), then
the visibility (or invisibility) of the scroll might prove useful. In the case of processions

or acting, sometimes opening and flipping pages could become more cumbersome than
helpful.
Poetical rolls, like the dialogue between Helen and Ganymede seen below, were another
type of portable scrolls, as these could be easily held in the hand while the poet recited
her or his words before an audience. Certain magical scrolls, such as the arma Christi
scrolls, which may be carried and worn, likewise fit into this category. Moreover, magical
scrolls, like those containing the Life of St. Margaret, have functions which extend
beyond the mere presentation of text to include properties of healing or protection.
In each of these cases mentioned above, the size of the text and its use for a given
occasion lends itself better to the form of the scroll than to the form of a book.
Transkript 8( slika- detailed record 2),9-10( slika)

Archaizing
Scrolls look ancient to us today, and they looked fairly ancient to medieval Europeans as
well. The codex, at the very least, was the predominant medieval writing support, so the
appearance of the scroll was noticeably different from the norm. In this regard, we might
consider the use of the scroll in some cases for the purpose of creating the appearance of
importance by creating the appearance of age. The choice of constructing these these
scrolls we might describe as archaizing.
Southern Italian Exultet rolls, for example, were likely created in scroll format because of
the importance of the liturgy contained therein. The Exultet is the blessing sung during

the Easter Vigil in anticipation of the most holy moment in the Christian liturgical year.
These scrolls, written in Beneventan script during the tenth through the twelfth
centuries, were often written with the text facing one way and the images facing the
opposite direction. While it is not certain why text and images were inverted, scholars
suggest that this allowed the deacon to sing the liturgy as the members in the front row
of the church, especially the bishop, looked on at the beautiful imagery flowing from the
ambo.
Harvard holds a number of archaizing scrolls in its collection. For example, the
Houghton Library possesses a late-thirteenth, early-fourteenth Greek liturgy of St Basil
the Great. This scroll would have been used in the Greek Orthodox Church about ten
times during the year during special celebrations, such as the Sundays of Lent. The
scroll contains prayers and indications for speaking sections aloud for the hearing of the
congregation. Byzantine liturgies, especially the Eucharistic rites, are commonly written
on scrolls since the eleventh century. Another scroll among the holdings at Harvard
contains the prayers of St Bernard of Clairvaux, one of the most powerful figures of the
twelfth century. This fifteenth century scroll may have been fashioned as a scroll rather
than a codex due to the importance of Bernard as the author of the text that it contains.

Transkript 11-12
Contents Suggest a Scroll Format
Sometimes the text lends itself to the format of the scroll more readily than the format of
the codex. Maps, genealogies, and chronicles, for examples, are better suited to a long,
continuous text surface than to a series of discrete pages. The format of the scroll allows
the eye to flow down the scroll and, thus, to flow through time, as it were. So, for
instance, when it comes to a genealogy of biblical figures or of European kings, the scroll
format permits the viewer to see quickly and effectively the relationship among the
various people in a more complete, less broken form.
Consider genealogies like the tree of English kings seen below and world chronicles, such
as the French scrolls called chronique universelle du monde. Reading down these scrolls

marks passage through space and time, allowing the scroll format to inform and to
structure the readers engagement with the text.
Transkript 13

Transkript 14

Transkript 15

A Deeper Look at Two Scrolls

There are various uses for the scroll which causes the technology to persist well into the
History of the Book. Professor Kay Kaufman Shelemay directs our attention to an
Ethiopian magical scroll called an asmat. These scrolls, written and illustrated by
literate Ethiopian musicians, were written and then performed/sung by their scribes in
an attempt to heal an ill person. The asmat, which is created to the length of the body of
the one to be healed, would then be carried by the invalid in order to protect him or her
from future harm.
Professor Kelly also sits down with Scott Possiel, who examined Houghton MS Typ 416,
the Liturgy of St Basil the Great, for the exhibition of scrolls presented at Harvard and
immortalized in this course. Scott explains some of the features of this scroll, and he and
Professor Kelly invite you to explore this fascinating scroll in greater detail through
Mirador.
Transkript 16-17 i slika