Schriftrollen

This book is the first to offer a thorough examination of German-language and Middle Dutch texts transmitted in the medium of the scroll. The study begins by delimiting its subject matter with regard to history of books, literary studies, and media theory. The second part attempts to organize the research field from a comparative point of view by giving a survey of known medieval scrolls and by focusing on rotuli as a European phenomenon. Subsequently, commented editions and analyses of selected vernacular scrolls are presented in 20 case studies, among them the 'Mülinen' scroll, the 'Muri Easter play', a 'Dance of Death' scroll from Kleve, the lyric scrolls from Los Angeles, Basel, Königsberg, and Antwerpen, the so called 'Regensburg love letter', and a series of prayer scrolls. On this basis, the study develops a typology of the scroll as a medium of transmission which shows the historical, spatial, medial, textual, and functional interconnections of this area of study. A final section brings together the conclusions as parameters of a theory of the medieval scroll.