Scrolls were used to store and display printed information before the development of bound books. They are still produced for specialized purposes, such as Jewish religious services. Scrolls were bulky and difficult to use, but are still used for important religious information.
A parchment is a large roll of parchment, papyrus, paper, or other flexible writing material that is used to store and display printed information. At one time, scrolls were the primary method of storing information, until the codex or bound book was developed. Some examples of ancient scrolls can be seen in museums around the world, and scrolls continue to be produced for very specialized purposes, such as Jewish religious services.
Because scrolls are so closely related to ancient knowledge and the written word, they often appear as decorative motifs in a variety of places. The word “parchment” itself was first used in 1405 and descended from a long line of words all referring to printed and rolled-up materials. Oddly enough, by 1405, the scroll had largely been superseded by the codex.
A classic scroll was designed with rollers on both ends, allowing people to turn the scroll to the appropriate page. Many scrolls included built-in rods for the purpose of rolling them, although scrolls could also be rolled by hand. To view a specific page, people would have to meticulously roll the scroll over the area of interest, rolling the slack as they went to keep the scroll from stretching out of control.
A shorter version of the scroll was known as the scroll. Rolls were often used for things like accounting and other administrative tasks, and “roll” in this sense lives on in the modern phrase “rent rolls,” which refers to the rents collected by a landlord each month. Ancient scrolls are almost as fascinating as scrolls, because they contain interesting data on trade and economics; studying the roles allows you to see how much things cost, and how the various situations were handled in the administrative offices.
While the scrolls look neat to modern viewers, they were quite a pain to handle. They were typically extremely large, very bulky, and difficult to use. Imagine, if you will, being forced to scroll through each page of a book to look for something, rather than simply flipping to the appropriate page, and you’ll see why the scroll went dead when a better idea came along.
In the Jewish community, scrolls are used for important religious information, most classically for storing and displaying the Torah in Jewish places of worship. Torah scrolls are often unrolled on ceremonial occasions and are kept in a special box for protection. Several companies produce Torah scrolls and other religious materials which are still presented in scroll format.
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