Many Aleteia readers are surely familiar with the Exsultet hymn, a liturgical chant sung during the Easter Vigil. Also known as the Easter Proclamation, this hymn is usually sung by a deacon as the Paschal candle is lit at the start of Easter Vigil Mass.
But not many of us might know that this solemn chant made its way to our current times thanks to beautiful illuminated scrolls dating to the 11th to 13th centuries, currently preserved in libraries and museums around Europe.
Known as the Exsultet Roll, these ancient scrolls, which were both functional liturgical tools and ornamental objects, are seen by scholars as an example of the unique way in which Catholics expressed their faith visually in southern Italy in the high Middle Ages.
Mixing Byzantine influences like frontal figures and well-defined outlines with local Southern Italian motifs like interlace initials and geometric patterns, Exsultet scrolls are a stunning example of the longevity and awe-inspiring beauty of Catholic medieval manuscripts.
Taking their name from the opening lyrics of the chant, Exsultet iam angelica turba coelorum (‘Let the angelic host of heaven exult’), these rolls worked a little like subtitles on a foreign language movie. They were slowly unrolled by the deacon from the top of the ambo, allowing believers, most of whom did not understand the hymn’s Latin lyrics, to follow the chant by looking up at the illustrations.
That’s why the figures in these 1,000-year-old parchments, some of which measured up to 20 or 30 feet long, are often upside down compared with the text. These “subtitles” scrolls were probably first invented in the Abbey of Montecassino, south of Rome, and later spread to other Catholic sites in southern Italy, including the cities of Bari and Benevento.
One of the most famous scrolls, known as the Monte Cassino Exsultet roll (after the Benedictine Abbey where it was meticulously crafted in the 11th century), contains 13 miniatures, small vignettes typical of medieval manuscripts, that illustrate the text. Currently preserved at the British Library in London, it visually displays scenes from the Exsultet hymn such as the Crucifixion of Christ with bright colors, including ultramarine blue and gold, that still impress viewers more than a 1,000 years after they were created.
Also made at the Abbey of Montecassino, the Barberini Exsultet Roll, which takes its name from the Barberini family collection where it was formerly kept, is made of 10 miniatures displaying influences of Byzantine and Ottoman illumination style, featuring intricate floral motifs and abstract patterns.
Every year, in April, the Diocesian Museum of Bari in southern Italy organizes an Exsultet festival to showcase some of the most well-preserved Exsultet scrolls from around the country. “Through their elegant calligraphy, vivid colors, and illustrations rich in religious and civic symbolism, these scrolls offer us a privileged glimpse into the devotion and ingenuity of those who created them,” said Giuseppe Satriano, Archbishop of Bari-Bitonto, during the annual Bari Exsultet Festival in 2025. “The Exsultet rolls represent an invaluable treasure of Christian culture and embody one of the highest forms of medieval art.”
