Sentence:  That the inscribed rolls (also referred to as <WSD>phylacteries</WSD>, ribbons, banderoles, or scrolls) depicted in, for example, manuscript illuminations are signs of a residual orality that would work much like a speech balloon is an interpretation challenged not only by codicolgical and diplomatic evidence, however scant, but further by the use of hands in the iconography of the period. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A speech scroll, an illustrative device depicting speech, song or other sound as if written on a scroll.