1. A handwritten
book from late Antiquity or the
Middle Ages is called a
codex, which is the
Latin word for book. The correct Latin plural is
codices, although
codexes is also often used. The codex was an improvement over the
scroll, because its
pages and a spine
? allow
random access. Though early codexes were made with
papyrus, medieval book makers used
parchment or
vellum (fine calf skin) for their pages, which made them very durable, but extremely expensive. The scholarly study of manuscripts from the point of view of book-making is called
codicology.
2. A legal text or code of conduct is sometimes called a codex (or is it?).
/Talk