Editing Codex (section)

==Etymology and origins==
[[File:2049 - Byzantine Museum, Athens - Parchement scroll, 13th century - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 12.jpg|thumb|upright=.6|The scroll was the document form which was replaced by the codex during the late Roman Empire.]]

The word codex comes from the [[Latin]] word ''caudex'', meaning "trunk of a tree", "block of wood" or "book". The codex began to replace the [[scroll]] almost as soon as it was invented, although new finds add three centuries to its history (see below). In [[Egypt]], by the fifth century, the codex outnumbered the scroll by ten to one based on surviving examples. By the sixth century, the scroll had almost vanished as a medium for literature.<ref>Roberts, Colin H., and Skeat, T. C. (1987), ''The Birth of the Codex''. London: [[Oxford University Press]] for the [[British Academy]], p. 75.</ref> The change from rolls to codices roughly coincides with the transition from [[papyrus]] to [[parchment]] as the preferred writing material, but the two developments are unconnected. In fact, any combination of codices and scrolls with papyrus and parchment is technically feasible and common in the historical record.<ref>{{harvnb|Roberts|Skeat|1983|p=5}}</ref>

Technically, even modern [[notebook]]s and [[paperback]]s are codices, but publishers and scholars reserve the term for [[manuscript]] (hand-written) books produced from [[late antiquity]] until the [[Middle Ages]].{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} The scholarly study of these manuscripts is sometimes called [[codicology]]. The study of ancient documents in general is called [[paleography]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paleography|title=Definition of PALEOGRAPHY|website=www.merriam-webster.com|language=en|access-date=2019-03-05|archive-date=2019-03-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190306043044/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paleography|url-status=live}}</ref>

The codex provided considerable advantages over other book formats, primarily its compactness, sturdiness, economic use of materials by using both sides ([[recto and verso]]), and ease of reference (a codex accommodates [[random access]], as opposed to a scroll, which uses [[sequential access]]).<ref>{{harvnb|Roberts|Skeat|1983|pp=45–53}}</ref>