What is a scroll, an ancient book, a manuscript? How and from what materials did they make?

Once the shepherd found in the Qumran cave pitchers with scrolls. He did not know what kind of treasure this was. Now these scrolls are in museums, they are studied by specialists. These are the oldest surviving copies of the Holy Scriptures.

What is a scroll

The book in its modern form appeared only in the first century of our era. It was called the "code". These were cut into sheets and sewn parts of a scroll - a long cloth, parchment or papyrus. Scrolls were called books. There were repositories and libraries numbering up to 700,000 scrolls (the Alexandria Library).

All of them are manuscripts, that is, written by hand. Scrolls were stored vertically in jars. They were expensive. Could reach several meters. Long scrolls were wound on a special rolling pin with plugs. There could be two of them, so that it would be more convenient to unfold and read.

The ancient scroll had two forms of records: literary, with columns of text resembling modern pages, and solid. The latter was used for documents.

How did papyrus and parchment

To understand what a scroll of papyrus, you need to know about its manufacture. Growing along the banks of the Nile, the wild reed was collected, peeled from the upper peel and cut into the size of a leaf. Then, each piece was split along the fibers and flattened.

Several such pieces were densely laid out on a hard surface, then a layer of blanks across the fibers was applied from above. Pressed with oppression. And so several times. In cane juice - like glue, fresh papyrus glued together and became suitable for writing. Glued several meters canvas.

The technique of making leather for a letter will explain what a scroll of parchment is. The sheep's skin was soaked in lime mortar, washed and pulled on wooden frames. After that, remove the scraped, sanded and smoothed with pumice stone, rubbing the chalk. Now these scrolls can be seen in museums.

How the scrolls were composed

There were two methods of making scrolls. The text could be written on separate sheets, which were stitched together. The scriptory, a room for writing manuscripts, was not first equipped with desks. Often scribes wrote under dictation, replicating some text. Sitting on the floor, they held the letter on their lap. Later, a table appears with a device in the form of a desk, behind which write or rewrite the texts.

Books written under the order, were made from a single papyrus canvas. They could contain diagrams, drawings and large decorative letters. They cost more than ordinary, replicable books.

Modern people do not know what a scroll is. But this is the whole epoch of human history. Why not visit the museum and not look at them personally?