Codex

A codex is the earliest format for a modern book, such that pages are bound on one edge. Originally the pages were papyrus, parchment or vellum, and the use oF paper did not arise until centuries later.

The codex replaced the more primitive formats of papyrus rolls and wax tablets, in order to facilitate bound copies of the Bible. The oldest nearly complete codices (pronounced kō-də-'sēz, which is plural of codex) are the 4th-century A.D. Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus. Fragments of biblical codicies have been recovered from back to the early part of the 2nd century A.D.

The innovations provided by the codex format included:

• the ability to contain longer texts (the length of a scroll was limited, which the Gospel of Matthew nearly reached)
• a codex can be opened to anywhere in the text
• a codex enabled writing on both sides of each page (each leaf)