Roll

A form of book in which the writing support is joined into a long, continuous piece, rolled up from either end.

A form of book in which the writing support is joined into a long, continuous piece, rolled up from either end. In antiquity, rolls (volumina) were the main form of book. They were made of strips of papyrus and were rolled and read side-to-side. In the Middle Ages, when the codex had replaced the volumen for book-writing, parchment rolls were used for certain specialized purposes, including records, genealogies, chronicles, and the Exsultet sung at the Easter Vigil. Some scholars use the word "roll" for books or documents that have a vertical orientation and are read from top to bottom, and use "scroll" to describe codexes written with a horizontal orientation.

  • Arabic:
    دَرْج; مجلّة
  • French:
    Rôle; Rouleau
  • German:
    Rotulus; Buchrolle; Rolle
  • Italian:
    Rotolo
  • Latin:
    Rotulus
  • Spanish:
    Rollo

Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007), 250-258.