Egyptian, Greek, Roman, etc. I am attempting to find some historically plausible recreations of scroll technology from these ancient civilizations. While I have tracked down a few sources that purport to offer instruction in the craft of ancient scrollery, most of them appear to be of the “first, go to the hardware store and buy some wooden doweling and brass drawer knobs” character, and frankly I doubt their commitment to authenticity.
Basically, if I were to walk into the Great Library of Alexandria circa 300 BC and ask, “Hey I would like to see some SCROLLS PLEASE,” I would no doubt be tackled and promptly enslaved, being a vaguely Viking-looking guy in bizarre clothing who doesn’t speak a word of Greek or Latin. But before that happened, I might have the opportunity to catch a glimpse of some of the scrolls there. What would they look like? Would each one have its own little scroll case? Did the ancients really use doorknobs to make their scrolls, or did the scrollknob come first?
There are lots of books which chronicle the history of books, but seemingly few books which detail the history of scrolls. I suspect that casual bookism is to blame.