The Role of the Scroll: An Illustrated Introduction to Scrolls in the Middle Ages

The fundamental question “Why make a scroll when you have the technology to make a book?”, asked by Kelly (Capturing Music), a Harvard music professor, is only partially answered in his puzzling, unsatisfying, though visually rich, introduction to the subject of Western European scrolls in the Middle Ages. Rarer than their codex (book) counterparts, scrolls nevertheless formed an important part of medieval written culture, Kelly argues. Whether tracing genealogies or mapping pilgrimage routes, serving as the interior of amulets or providing cheat sheets for actors, scrolls, with their adaptability, portability, and unbroken line of text, proved useful for certain tasks. But that is about all that can be gleaned from the simplistic narrative that accompanies the illustrations of different scrolls. Kelly leaps from topic to topic with little sense of cohesion and even less in the way of probing, providing little context for the subject and leaving seemingly crucial issues unaddressed. (Were scrolls more or less expensive than books, for example?) Moreover, the writing is too basic for academics, yet the subject is too niche for a general audience. One arrives at the conclusion feeling unsure of exactly whom Kelly intended to reach with his haphazard study. (Apr.)