Codex
A codex (plural codices) is a book-like object with writing on it.[1] On a codex there are separate pages bound together at one edge, whereas a scroll is one continuous long document. The term is used for book-type objects written by hand, and includes books written on vellum or parchment.
The codex transformed the shape of the book itself. As an object, books can last for centuries, and many codices are in the great modern libraries.[2] The codex was first described by the 1st-century AD Roman poet Martial, who praised it. The codex was as common as scrolls by about AD 300.[3] It had completely replaced scrolls in the Greco-Roman world by the 6th century.[4]
Codex Media
The scroll was the document form which was replaced by the codex during the late Roman Empire.
Reproduction Roman-style wax tablet, from which the codex evolved
The Book of Kells is an example of a codex that was created during the Middle Ages.
Early medieval bookcase containing about ten codices depicted in the Codex Amiatinus (c. 700)
The Codex Mendoza, an Aztec codex from the early 16th century, showing the tribute obligations of particular towns
The cover of the Carolingian gospel book, the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, produced ca. AD 870 at the Palace of Aachen, during the reign of Charles the Bald.Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich.
The Codex Manesse. Most manuscripts were ruled with horizontal lines that served as the baselines on which the text was entered.
Related pages
References
- ↑ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed: Codex: "a manuscript volume".
- ↑ Lyons M. 2011. Books: a living history. London: Thames & Hudson, 8.
- ↑ "Codex" in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991, 473. ISBN 0195046528
- ↑ Roberts, Colin H. & Skeat T.C. 1983. The birth of the Codex. London: British Academy. pp. 15–22; 75. ISBN 0-19-726061-6