Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Volumen

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

VOLU'MEN. A roll, or book, which was written upon one long sheet, made out of a number of strips of papyrus, glued together, and when completed, rolled round a cylinder, so that the reader unrolled it as he read; whence the expression evolvere volumen means "to read a book." (Cic. Att. x. 10. Hor. Tibull. Propert. Mart.) The illustration (Volumen/1.1) represents five rolls tied up together, from originals as they were discovered in a house at Herculaneum.

2. A volume, in our sense of the term, that is, a certain portion of a work contained in one roll; for when the MSS. ran to any length, it was customary to divide it into separate parts or books, each of which was rolled upon a separate stick. Ov. Trist. iii. 14. 19. Plin. Ep. iii. 5. 5. Plin. H. N. vi. 34.

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