Un preteso "srotolapapiri"

In a recent article on the villa of the jurist Mucio Scevola on the Aniene and its frescoes (2021), U. Pappalardo focuses on the ancient instrumentum scriptorium. Among several objects that can be associated with the activity of writing, he examines in particular some specimens depicted in a male statue from the island of Gerba in Tunisia and in several wall paintings. One of them is a sort of small box, of which no specimen has reached us directly, but which is represented on some Pompeian frescoes and in one from the Villa of Mucio. Pappalardo considers such a box to be a device used to unroll papyrus scrolls, but his hypothesis is demonstrated to be erroneous. [Publisher's text]