: a manuscript book especially of Scripture, classics, or ancient annals
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In the 3rd and 4th centuries A.D., the codex began to replace the older scroll as the preferred form for longer writings. Unlike the scroll, this wonderful invention permitted writing on both sides of a sheet, made it easy to locate a particular passage, and could contain a very long piece of writing. Codices (note this unusual plural form) were usually written on parchment, the specially prepared skin of a sheep or goat, or papyrus, the ancestor of paper. Because codices were handwritten, there were few copies of any single codex, and sometimes only a single copy. Today we no longer write our books in longhand, but the modern book has kept basically the same form as the original codices.
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebThe show at the Getty marks only the third time ever the codex will go on public display.Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2022 The frame, and the codex, are just an excuse to gather together some tales that folks have long been telling together. Namwali Serpell, The New York Review of Books, 6 July 2022 The codex’s text is divided into weekly sections as read in synagogues. Edward Rothstein, WSJ, 21 Apr. 2022 Italy’s acquisitive Medici dynasty acquired it a few decades after the codex was completed.Los Angeles Times, 28 Dec. 2021 She is drawn to papyrus and codex, fragment and play. Casey Cep, The New Yorker, 1 Nov. 2021 An image from an Aztec-era codex that Ramírez-Oropeza showed me depicts the goddess Quilaztli or Cihuacoatl pulverizing the bones on a metate, a slanted stone grinding tool found in Mexico to this day, usually used for breaking down corn. Steve Padilla, Los Angeles Times, 28 Oct. 2021 Two thousand years after the codex and 500 after the Gutenberg press, the book persists. Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 14 Sep. 2021 The quake coincided with a solar eclipse—a phenomenon represented in the codex by a circle with lightning bolts coming out of it. Isis Davis-marks, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Aug. 2021 See More