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Scroll
A scroll (from the Old French escroe or
escroue), also known as a roll, is a roll of
papyrus, parchment, or paper containing
writing.[1]

Structure
A scroll is usually partitioned into pages,
which are sometimes separate sheets of
papyrus or parchment glued together at the
edges. Scrolls may be marked divisions of a
continuous roll of writing material. The
scroll is usually unrolled so that one page is
exposed at a time, for writing or reading,
with the remaining pages rolled and stowed The Joshua Roll, Vatican Library. An illuminated scroll,
to the left and right of the visible page. Text probably of the 10th century, created in the Byzantine
is written in lines from the top to the bottom empire.
of the page. Depending on the language, the
letters may be written left to right, right to
left, or alternating in direction (boustrophedon).

History
Scrolls were the first form of editable record keeping texts,
used in Eastern Mediterranean ancient Egyptian civilizations.
Parchment scrolls were used by the Israelites among others
before the codex or bound book with parchment pages was
invented by the Romans, which became popular around the 1st
Scroll of the Book of Esther, Seville,
century AD.[2] Scrolls were more highly regarded than codices Spain
until well into Roman times.

The ink used in writing scrolls had to adhere to a surface that

was rolled and unrolled, so special inks were developed. Even
so, ink would slowly flake off scrolls.

Rolls
Shorter pieces of parchment or paper are called rolls or rotuli,
although usage of the term by modern historians varies with
Ingredients used in making ink for
periods. Historians of the classical period tend to use roll
Hebrew scrolls today
instead of scroll. Rolls may still be many meters or feet long,
and were used in the medieval and Early Modern period in
Europe and various West Asian cultures for manuscript
administrative documents intended for various uses, including accounting, rent-rolls, legal
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agreements, and inventories. A distinction that sometimes

applies is that the lines of writing in rotuli run across the width
of the roll (that is to say, are parallel with any unrolled portion)
rather than along the length, divided into page-like sections.
Rolls may be wider than most scrolls, up to perhaps 60 cm or
two feet wide. Rolls were often stored together in a special
cupboard on shelves.

A special Chinese form of short book, called the "whirlwind

book," consists of several pieces of paper bound at the top with
bamboo and then rolled up.[3]

Scotland
In Scotland, the term scrow was used from about the 13th to
the 17th centuries for scroll, writing, or documents in list or Volumen and Rotulus, two types of
schedule form. There existed an office of Clerk of the Scrow scrolls
(Rotulorum Clericus) meaning the Clerk of the Rolls or Clerk of

Roman portraiture frescos from Pompeii, 1st century AD, depicting two different men wearing laurel wreaths,
one holding the rotulus, the other a volumen

the Register.[4]

Replacement by the codex

The codex form of the book—that is, folding a scroll into pages,
which made reading and handling the document much easier—
appears during the Roman period. Stemming from a passage in
Suetonius' Divus Julius (56.6), legend has it that Julius Caesar
was the first to fold scrolls, concertina-fashion, for dispatches Rolls recording UK Acts of
Parliament held in the Parliamentary
to his forces campaigning in Gaul. But the precise meaning of
Archives, Palace of Westminster,
the passage is by no means clear. As C. H. Roberts and T. C.
London
Skeat point out, the idea that "Julius Caesar may have been the
inventor of the codex... is indeed a fascinating proposition; but
in view of the uncertainties surrounding the passage, it is
doubtful whether any such conclusion can be drawn".[5] What the evidence of surviving early
codices does make clear is that Christians were among the earliest to make widespread use of the
codex. Several Christian papyrus codices known to us date from the second century, including at
least one generally accepted as being no later than A.D. 150. "All in all, it is impossible to believe
that the Christian adoption of the codex can have taken place any later than circa A.D. 100 (it may,
of course, have been earlier)".[6] There were certainly practical reasons for the change. Scrolls were
awkward to read if a reader wished to consult material at opposite ends of the document. Further,
scrolls were written only on one side, while both sides of the codex page were used.
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Eventually, the folds were cut into sheets, or "leaves," and bound together along one edge. The
bound pages were protected by stiff covers, usually of wood enclosed with leather. Codex is Latin
for a "block of wood": the Latin liber, the root of "library," and the German Buch, the source of
"book," both refer to wood. The codex was not only easier to handle than the scroll, but it also fit
conveniently on library shelves. The spine generally held the book's title, facing out, affording
easier organization of the collection. The surface on which the ink was applied was kept flat, not
subjected to weakening by the repeated bending and unbending that scrolls undergo as they are
alternately rolled up for storage and unrolled for reading, which creates physical stresses in both
the papyrus and the ink of scrolls.

The term codex technically refers only to manuscript books — those that, at one time, were
handwritten. More specifically, a codex is the term used primarily for a bound manuscript from
Roman times up through the Middle Ages.

From the fourth century on, the codex became the standard format for books, and scrolls were no
longer generally used. After the contents of a parchment scroll were copied in codex format, the
scroll was seldom preserved. The majority that did survive were found by archaeologists in burial
pits and in the buried trash of forgotten communities.[7]

Recent Torah scroll discovery

The oldest complete Torah scroll was discovered stored in an academic library in Bologna, Italy, by
Professor Mauro Perani in 2013. It had been mislabeled in 1889 as dating from the 17th century,
but Perani suspected it was actually older as it was written in an earlier Babylonian script. Two
tests conducted by laboratories at Italy's University of Salento and at the University of Illinois
confirmed that the scroll dates from the second half of the 12th century to the first quarter of the
13th century. Ancient Torah scrolls are rare because when they are damaged they stop being used
for liturgies and are buried.

The scroll is made up of 58 sections of soft sheep leather. It is 36 meters long and 64 centimeters
wide.[8][9]

Modern technology
Modern technology may be able to assist in reading ancient scrolls. In January 2015, computer
software may be making progress in reading 2,000-year-old Herculaneum scrolls, computer
scientists report. After working for more than 10 years on unlocking the contents of damaged
Herculaneum scrolls, researchers may be able to progress towards reading the scrolls, which
cannot be physically opened.[10]

In popular culture
Many role-playing games (such as Dungeons & Dragons) feature scrolls as magical items,
which cast spells when they are read aloud. Typically, the scroll is consumed in the process.

See also
Speech scroll
Hanging scroll
Handscroll
Herculaneum papyri
Paleography
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Rotulus
Vellum
Woodblock printing

References
1. Beal, Peter (2008). " "scroll" in A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology 1450–2000" (htt
ps://web.archive.org/web/20130602205448/http://www.oxfordreference.com/). Online edition.
Oxford University Press. Archived from the original (http://www.oxfordreference.com) on 2 June
2013. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
2. "10 Innovations That Built Ancient Rome" (https://www.history.com/news/history-lists/10-innovat
ions-that-built-ancient-rome). history.com. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20180312144
032/https://www.history.com/news/history-lists/10-innovations-that-built-ancient-rome) from the
original on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
3. "IDP Education - Bookbinding" (http://idp.bl.uk/education/bookbinding/bookbinding.a4d).
idp.bl.uk. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20160110163433/http://idp.bl.uk/education/boo
kbinding/bookbinding.a4d) from the original on 10 January 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2007.
4. Beal, 2008, "scrow".
5. Roberts, C.H.; Skeat, T.C. (1987). The Birth of the Codex. London: The British Academy. p. 19.
ISBN 0-19-726061-6.
6. Roberts, C. H.; Skeat, T. C. (1987). The Birth of the Codex. London: The British Academy.
p. 61.
7. Murray, Stuart A.P. (2009) The Library: An Illustrated History. Chicago, IL. Skyhorse Publishing.
(p.27)
8. Oldest complete scroll of Torah found in Italy (http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2013-06/ol
dest-complete-scroll-torah-found-italy) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20140407075932/
http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2013-06/oldest-complete-scroll-torah-found-italy) 7 April
2014 at the Wayback Machine. (2013). Christian Century, 130(13), 17
9. "Carbon Dating Confirms World's Oldest Torah Scroll" (https://web.archive.org/web/201712230
42850/https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/05/130530-worlds-oldest-torah-scroll-bi
ble-bologna-carbon-dating/). 31 May 2013. Archived from the original (https://news.nationalgeo
graphic.com/news/2013/05/130530-worlds-oldest-torah-scroll-bible-bologna-carbon-dating/) on
23 December 2017. Retrieved 22 December 2017.
10. Major breakthrough in reading ancient scrolls (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/
150122114405.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20150123041620/https://www.scien
cedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150122114405.htm) 23 January 2015 at the Wayback Machine,
Science Daily

External links
Digital Scrolling Paintings Project (http://scrolls.uchicago.edu/)
Encyclopaedia Romana: "Scroll and codex" (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedi
a_romana/scroll/scrollcodex.html)

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