Memorandum de operationibus apud Thorp per dominicam post festum Sancti Michaelis anno regni Ricardi Secundi post conquestum secundo (A Memorandum of the Proceedings at Thorpe on the Sunday after the Feast of St. Michael in the Reign of Richard II after the Second Conquest)
Ink on flattened parchment roll
70 x 20 cm
1378 CE, Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, Kingdom of England (present-day United Kingdom)
This flattened roll is an accounting record from Ashwellthorpe in the county of Norfolk, England. It was drawn up during the second Regnal Year of Richard II (beginning June 1378 CE), and records work completed and wages paid through the Sunday after the feast of Saint Michael (September 29, 1378 CE). Memoranda like this were often written in Latin until the early sixteenth century and used Roman numerals instead of Arabic numbers.
The long format of this scroll, measuring 70 centimeters, is related to the way it was kept: it would have originally been rolled up for storage, held shut with something like a string, and unrolled when needed for reference. While the difference in physical construction often leads us to discount rolls as books, their functions are identical, preserving and transmitting knowledge for posterity.
Ivy D’Agostino