Category Archives: Voluminology
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
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
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
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
The Vocabulary of Reading a Papyrus Roll
When I was writing an earlier post that mentioned papyrus rolls, I realized that it was difficult to describe certain physical aspects of rolls. Here is what I wrote: “Normally when a papyrus roll was rolled up, the text was … Continue reading
An Informative Article on a (Different) Sappho Papyrus
When it comes to Sappho papyri, I’ve been reporting mostly bad news for the last couple years. I’m happy to have some good news now about a different papyrus of Sappho, one whose provenance and authenticity are not under any … Continue reading
