What is "scroll"

Rule \Rule\, n. Syn: regulation; law; precept; maxim; guide; canon; order; method; direction; control; government; sway; empire. [1913 Webster] Rule \Rule\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ruled; p. pr. & vb. n. Ruling.] [Cf. OF. riuler, ruiler, L. regulare. See Rule, n., and cf. Regulate.]

1. To control the will and actions of; to exercise authority or dominion over; to govern; to manage.
   --Chaucer.

   A bishop then must be blameless; . . . one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection.
   --1 Tim. iii. 2, 4.

2. To control or direct by influence, counsel, or persuasion; to guide; -- used chiefly in the passive.

   I think she will be ruled In all respects by me.
   --Shak.

3. To establish or settle by, or as by, a rule; to fix by universal or general consent, or by common practice.

   That's are ruled case with the schoolmen.
   --Atterbury.

4. (Law) To require or command by rule; to give as a direction or order of court.

5. To mark with lines made with a pen, pencil, etc., guided by a rule or ruler; to print or mark with lines by means of a rule or other contrivance effecting a similar result; as, to rule a sheet of paper of a blank book.

   Ruled surface (Geom.), any surface that may be described by a straight line moving according to a given law; -- called also a scroll.

c.1400, "roll of parchment or paper," altered (by association with rolle "roll") from scrowe (c.1200), from Anglo-French escrowe, Old French escroe "scrap, roll of parchment," from Frankish *skroda "shred" or a similar Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *skrauth- (cognates: Old English screada "piece cut off, cutting, scrap;" see shred (n.)). As an ornament on furniture or in architecture, from 1610s.

"to write down in a scroll," c.1600, from scroll (n.). Sense of "show a few lines at a time" (on a computer or TV screen) first recorded 1981. Related: Scrolled; scrolling.

n. 1 A roll of paper or parchment; a writing formed into a roll; a schedule; a list. 2 (context architecture English) An ornament formed of undulations giving off spirals or sprays, usually suggestive of plant form. Roman architectural ornament is largely of some scroll pattern. 3 A mark or flourish added to a person's signature, intended to represent a seal, and in some States allowed as a substitute for a seal. [U.S.] Alexander Mansfield Burrill. 4 Scroll-shaped end of a violin. 5 (context geometry English) a skew surface. vb. 1 (context computing transitive English) To change one's view of data on a computer's display, typically using a scroll bar or a scroll wheel. 2 (context intransitive English) To move in or out of view horizontally or vertically. 3 (context internet intransitive English) To flood a chat system with numerous lines of text, causing legitimate messages to scroll out of view before they can be read.

v. move through text or graphics in order to display parts that do not fit on the screen; "Scroll down to see the entire text"

1. n. a round shape formed by a series of concentric circles [syn: coil, whorl, roll, curl, curlicue, ringlet, gyre]

2. a document that can be rolled up (as for storage) [syn: roll]

A scroll is a roll of parchment, papyrus, or paper, which has been drawn or written upon.

Scroll may also refer to:

A scroll (from the Old French escroe or escroue) is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing.

[[ of one basic form of the scroll, taken from existing monuments. Note the common core element of the heart shaped confronted volutes & stem, highlighted in green.
Key:

• E: Ara Pacis, sculpture, c. 27 AD
• B: Palazzo Mattei, Rome, stucco relief, 2nd century
• D: Lateran, Rome, SS. Rufinus & Secundus, mosaic, 4th century
• A: Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem, mosaic, 691-2
• C: San Clemente, Rome, mosaic, c. 1200]]

The scroll in art is an element of ornament and graphic design featuring spirals and rolling incomplete circle motifs, some of which resemble the edge-on view of a book or document in scroll form, though many types loosely represent plant forms such as vines, with leaves or flowers attached. Scrollwork is a term for some forms of decoration dominated by spiralling scrolls, today used in popular language for two-dimensional decorative flourishes and arabesques of all kinds, especially those with circular or spiralling shapes.

Scroll decoration has been used for the decoration of a vast range of objects, in all Eurasian cultures, and most beyond. A lengthy evolution over the last two millennia has taken forms of plant-based scroll decoration from Greco-Roman architecture to Chinese pottery, and then back across Eurasia to Europe. They are very widespread in architectural decoration, woodcarving, painted ceramics, mosaic, and illuminated manuscripts (mostly for borders).

In the usual artistic convention, scrolls "apparently do not succumb to gravitational forces, as garlands and festoons do, or oppose them, in the manner of vertically growing trees. This gives scrolls a relentless power. Even if attached to walls, they are more deeply embedded in the architectural order, which are ficticiously hanging on them."

A scroll is the decoratively carved end of the neck of certain stringed instruments, mainly members of the violin family. The scroll is typically carved in the shape of a volute (a rolled-up spiral) according to a canonical pattern, although some violins are adorned with carved heads, human and animal. The quality of a scroll is one of the things used to judge the luthier's skill. Instrument scrolls usually approximate a logarithmic spiral. Although many references assert that the instrument scroll closely follows the golden spiral (a specific form of the logarithmic spiral) this assertion is demonstrably false. Scrollwork is a common feature of Baroque ornament, the period when string instrument design became essentially fixed.

Below the scroll is a hollowed-out compartment (the pegbox) through which the tuning pegs pass. The instrument's strings are wound around these pegs. The scroll and pegbox are almost always carved out of one piece of wood.