H/T to the always-interesting Amy Welborn for uncovering this from the Medieval manuscripts blog:
The medieval churches of Southern Italy maintained a very special Easter tradition. They celebrated the Easter Vigil of Holy Saturday from a scroll made to be used once a year for this specific ritual. Known as Exultet rolls, these manuscripts combine words, music and pictures to create an enthralling multimedia experience centred on the joyful theme of light returning to the world.
Exultet rolls were made for performance. They were designed to be read by a deacon standing in the church’s ambo (a raised platform used for readings). As he was reading, he would turn the top of the roll over so that it draped in front of the ambo, displaying the images to the congregation. For this reason, the pictures are generally arranged upside-down in relation to the text so they would appear the right way up to the viewers. The people would look up and see the beautiful images unfurling before their eyes like a moving picture show.
As Amy notes: “An early church screen, I guess, but so much cooler.”
Or as another observer described it, sort of like a PowerPoint.
A Deacon Chanting the Exultet
From the Barberini Exultet Roll
Italian (Montecassino), c. 1087
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana; MS Cod.Barb.Lat. 592
— Source
