A beautifully illustrated, full color history of scrolls and their uses in medieval life.

Why make a scroll when you can make a book? This is the key question that music historian Thomas Forrest Kelly answers in The Role of the Scroll. Scrolls were the standard form of book in Western antiquity, but from the fourth century onward, the codex began to outnumber scrolls. And yet, people in the Middle Ages continued to make them.

In these colorful pages, you'll discover remarkable scrolls that range from showy court documents for empresses to tiny amulets for pregnant women, from pilgrimage maps to small, portable actors' scrolls. An alchemical recipe for gold will give you a glimpse into medieval life as a metalsmith, and surveying a lengthy list of gifts for Queen Elizabeth I enables you to observe a royal court party. Lively and accessible, The Role of the Scroll is essential reading-and viewing-for anyone interested in how people have kept record of life through the ages.