 |
 |
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Yes, in Judaism the horizontal Torah scroll persisted liturgically, alongside the introduction of Torah (and other) codices (e.g. Aleppo codex, Leningrad codex in 8-9th centuries). If Christian use of the vertical roll format was partly in reaction to such Jewish scroll usage, it might have been expected to arise earlier. There are a significant number of examples of horizontal scrolls in Christian iconography in the period up to about the 6th century, and I have no examples of vertical scrolls in that early period. Probably there were vertical scrolls for some purposes before the emergence of the codex, judging from the fact that the precursor of the literary codex seems to be the hard surfaced notebook (usually in wax on wood pages), and that such notebooks sometimes opened vertically, although more usually horizontally. But most of the preserved rolls and fragments are oriented horizontally (but occasionally, as with the Michael Hymn, the back side is read by flipping the page vertically, not horizontally -- but those seem to be special single-page cases, not continuous rolls). In any event, thank you for these observations, which help to focus the discussion (or complicate it further, which is equally useful). Bob Kraft On 4/26/2012 8:12 AM, Dr Jim Bugslag wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > > Dear Bob, > One type of horizontal scroll that presumably would have survived all > the way through the Middle Ages is the Torah. Might the adoption of > the horizontal scroll be a reaction to that? I wonder, as well, > whether there might have been vertical scrolls in antiquity. Besides > liturgical scrolls, like the exultet rolls for example, there are > medieval vertical rolls surviving for genealogies, for which they are > well suited. Many thanks for raising an interesting distinction. > Jim > > On 26/04/2012 12:17 AM, Robert Kraft wrote: >> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and >> culture >> >> I'm fascinated by this image of John and Mark with their respective >> Gospels in hand. The formats of the books seem to represent scrolls >> written horizontally in "classical" fashion (rather than as rotuli, >> read vertically, as often depicted in Christian iconography after >> about the 6th century), unless normal codices were intended by were >> muddled in the restoration. >> >> I've been collecting images of horizontal scrolls in Christian >> depictions, and find that most of them are relatively early (many >> from Ravenna, for example), and that after about the 6th century, >> many artists understood scrolls to be vertical rotuli, like those >> used in liturgical (and legal) contexts. Of course, most frequently >> when "books" are depicted the codex format is represented. My >> interest is in the probable loss of awareness of the horizontal >> scroll especially in the west (at least one such scroll -- the >> "Joshua scroll" -- has been preserved from much later), the >> replacement of such scrolls by codices in the imagery, and the >> lingering awareness in some circles that "scrolls" were an early book >> format, but by the time the artist worked, "scroll" no longer meant >> the horizontal variety, but the then familiar vertically read rotulus. >> >> Any suggestions (or further examples) relating to this situation >> would be most welcome. >> >> Bob Kraft, UPenn >> >> On 4/25/2012 2:55 AM, John Dillon wrote: >>> Mark (at right; at left, St. John, apostle and evangelist) as >>> depicted in the restored eleventh-century frescoes of the Karanlık >>> kilise (Dark Church) at Göreme in Turkey's Nevşehir province: >>> http://www.pbase.com/dosseman/image/41566368 >>> >>> >> >> ********************************************************************** >> To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME >> to: [log in to unmask] >> To send a message to the list, address it to: >> [log in to unmask] >> To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion >> to: [log in to unmask] >> In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: >> [log in to unmask] >> For further information, visit our web site: >> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html >> >> > > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > to: [log in to unmask] > To send a message to the list, address it to: > [log in to unmask] > To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion > to: [log in to unmask] > In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: > [log in to unmask] > For further information, visit our web site: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html > ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html