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Category Archives: Voluminology
Taking Care of Papyrus Scrolls in Antiquity
The digital edition of a new book has recently become available: The volume is the result of a workshop back in 2022 in which I was fortunate enough to participate. It was a somewhat unusual seminar in the sense that … Continue reading
Posted in Book Trade in Antiquity, Voluminology
Tagged Book History, papyrology, papyrus, papyrus-rolls
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Pumice, Parchment, and Papyrus
In the latest issue of the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists (2024, just out–table of contents here), I have an article on the use of pumice on papyrus (AAM here). Here is the abstract: Papyrological handbooks published in … Continue reading
Posted in Archaeological context, Book Trade in Antiquity, Voluminology
Tagged books, history, papyrus, Papyrus rolls, Pumice, writing
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The Crosby-Schøyen Codex, the Length of kollēmata, and Dates of Codices
The upcoming auction of the Crosby-Schøyen Codex prompted me to revisit the edition of the codex and think a bit about the book’s construction. One datum that didn’t really register with me before I started making papyrus rolls is the … Continue reading
Posted in Bodmer Papyri, Codicology, Papyrus Making, Schøyen Collection, Tura Papyri, Voluminology
Tagged Book History, codex, Codicology, papyri, papyrology, papyrus, Papyrus rolls
4 Comments
Another Question About Those Possible Stands for Holding Open Papyrus Rolls
In a post back in 2021, I highlighted some interesting artifacts discussed in a 2001 article by Susan Wood. It’s a fascinating piece that focuses on two decorated ivory plaques with curious sets of holes found at Pompeii. The image … Continue reading
Storing Scrolls
I have papyrus rolls on my mind right now, but I’m also interested in parchment rolls. I’ve been reading an excellent new book by Bruce Holsinger, On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital … Continue reading
Posted in Voluminology
Tagged Book History, papyrus-rolls, parchment, Roman history, scrolls
4 Comments
Manufacturing a Papyrus Roll
Over the years, I’ve had many occasions to talk about the manufacture of papyrus rolls. I typically describe them as fairly simple artifacts–several individual sheets of papyrus pasted together to form a roll. And a papyrus roll is relatively simple … Continue reading
Posted in Book Trade in Antiquity, Papyrus Making, Voluminology
Tagged ancient-egypt, books, egypt, papyrus, papyrus-rolls
9 Comments
Snowy White Papyrus
I’ve been experimenting with making my own papyrus and discovering that there are lots of variables to control in order to make good quality writing material. One thing that especially surprised me has to do with the color of papyrus. … Continue reading
Posted in Papyrus Making, Voluminology
2 Comments
Parchment Book Covers for Papyrus Rolls
In a series of earlier posts, I examined some of the vocabulary used to describe papyrus rolls, especially those deluxe literary rolls described by Latin poets. One additional feature of these rolls that is sometimes mentioned is a parchment cover. … Continue reading
Posted in Book covers, Palaeography, Voluminology
4 Comments
Stands for Holding Open Papyrus Rolls?
In discussions of the early codex, one often finds statements about the obvious technological superiority of the book with pages over the roll. Sometimes these claims will push further and say that rolls were not only relatively less easy to … Continue reading
Posted in Voluminology
5 Comments
More Papyrus Roll Vocabulary: frons, cornua, umbilicus
In an earlier post, I raised some questions about the description of papyrus rolls. This generated some very helpful discussion in the comments. I now want to look at some of the ancient terminology for rolls. A good place to … Continue reading
Posted in Martial, Voluminology
10 Comments
Variant Readings 