Blank papyrus with wooden pole
The volume or papyrus scroll is a Roman book! Real papyrus leaves are used to created these ancient papyrus rolls, which are made by hand are made in our workshop. The sheet roll is blank, so that you can decorate the scroll to suit yourself with ancient or modern texts. The scroll is best decorated with authentic writing material – such as a goose feather quill or a reed pen that you can also buy in the Roman Shop.
- Length of the papyrus roll = about 90 cm
- Height of the papyrus roll = 20cm
- Blank premium papyrus roll
The papyrus rolls is assembled on a wooden stick made of real beechwood with turned finials. This allows you to stretch the ancient papyrus roll when writing and keep it securely in your hands while reading it. Finally, the scroll can be rolled back onto the timber and stored on it to save space. Vessels for the storage of ancient scrolls can also be found in the Roman Shop. Incidentally many of these scrolls were preserved in the only Roman library discovered in Italy, the Villa dei Papiri, the 'Villa of the Papyri', near Pompeii!
Get creative on real papyrus - make an ancient scroll
This hand crafted antique papyrus is a pure natural product made from the fibres of Egyptian bamboo. You can write or paint on the blank papyrus to make a very special gift or even use it as a birthday card. It can also be used as a background for pictures in a frame as papyrus (lat. cyperus papyrus) is visually attractive and very decorative. Unleash your creativity on the rolls of genuine papyrus!
Write like the ancient Romans
The ancient scroll made its way to Greece and Europe via Egypt. "Books" of papyrus were sold in rolls in Roman markets, they usually consisted of twenty papyrus leaves (kollemata). It was preferable to write on the inside of the roll (recto), where the grain of the papyrus was horizontal and the ancient reed pen (calamus) or the quill pen (penna scriptoria) had the least resistance. On the first page of a scroll (left) the fibres were always at right angles (verso). This sheet was called a protokollon and it remained undecorated, serving only as a protective cover for the roll.
Ancient papyrus: a Roman book!
It was written in parallel columns, which were different widths. Scientific and philosophical writings were written in broad columns and speeches in narrow ones. Ancient authors even wrote across the adhesive edges of papyrus leaves. In Roman times, most texts used dots to separate the individual words, this made the text easier to read. The scroll was eventually provided with an index (tituli) made of genuine parchment. It showed the name of the author and/or the title of the book and was written so that the roll could be found quickly.
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