Over the years I’ve made several capsae. These are typical scroll boxes holding Roman books (scrolls, more precisely) so we could regard them as a ‘hardcover’, quite literary. A dictionary record on these boxes describe them as follow:
CAPSA (dim. CAPSULA), or SCRINIUM, the box for holding books among the Romans. These boxes were usually made of beech-wood (Plin. H. N.XVI.43 s84), and were of a cylindrical form. There is no doubt respecting their form, since they are often placed by the side of statues dressed in the toga. (taken from William Smith, D.C.L., LL.D.: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875. )
As only a single capsa (from the Vila dei Papirii, Herculaneum) surveived to my knowledge a lot of the ‘looks’ of the items should be derived from statues and fresco’s. In my opinion some of these depictions do suggest these items were also made from leather. As there are small single scroll maps and letters as well as multiple scroll books, capsae could vary in size. Here some of the capsae I’ve made over the years.
Hi, can you make me or give me a capsa, it’s for a pedagogic project for a school in France?