Editing Codex (section)

==Preparation==
{{Further|Parchment}}

The first stage in creating a codex is to prepare the animal skin. The skin is washed with water and lime but not together. The skin is soaked in the lime for a couple of days.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/making/ |title=The Making of a Medieval Book |publisher=The J. Paul Getty Trust |access-date=19 November 2010 |archive-date=25 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125133814/http://getty.edu/art/exhibitions/making/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The hair is removed, and the skin is dried by attaching it to a frame, called a herse.<ref name="Intro">{{Cite book |last1=Clemens |first1=Raymond |title=Introduction to manuscript studies |last2=Graham |first2=Timothy |date=2007 |publisher=Cornell university press |isbn=978-0-8014-3863-9 |location=Itaca (N. Y.) London}}</ref>{{Rp|page=11}} The parchment maker attaches the skin at points around the circumference. The skin attaches to the herse by cords. To prevent it from being torn, the maker wraps the area of the skin attached to the cord around a pebble called a pippin.<ref name="Intro" />{{Rp|page=11}} After completing that, the maker uses a crescent shaped knife called a ''lunarium'' or ''[[lunellum]]'' to remove any remaining hairs. Once the skin completely dries, the maker gives it a deep clean and processes it into sheets. The number of sheets from a piece of skin depends on the size of the skin and the final product dimensions. For example, the average calfskin can provide three-and-a-half medium sheets of writing material, which can be doubled when they are folded into two conjoint leaves, also known as a ''bifolium''. Historians have found evidence of manuscripts in which the scribe wrote down the medieval instructions now followed by modern [[membrane]] makers.<ref name="daniel">Thompson, Daniel. "Medieval Parchment-Making." The Library 16, no. 4 (1935).</ref> Defects can often be found in the membrane, whether they are from the original animal, human error during the preparation period, or from when the animal was killed. Defects can also appear during the writing process. Unless the manuscript is kept in perfect condition, defects can also appear later in its life.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}

===Preparation of pages for writing===
[[File:Codex Manesse 193r - Albrecht von Rapperswil.jpg|thumb|The [[Codex Manesse]]. Most manuscripts were ruled with horizontal lines that served as the baselines on which the text was entered.]]

Firstly, the membrane must be prepared. The first step is to set up the quires. The quire is a group of several sheets put together. Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham point out, in "Introduction to Manuscript Studies", that "the quire was the scribe's basic writing unit throughout the Middle Ages":<ref name="Intro"/>{{Rp|page=14}}

<blockquote>Pricking is the process of making holes in a sheet of parchment (or membrane) in preparation of it ruling. The lines were then made by ruling between the prick marks.... The process of entering ruled lines on the page to serve as a guide for entering text. Most manuscripts were ruled with horizontal lines that served as the baselines on which the text was entered and with vertical bounding lines that marked the boundaries of the columns.<ref name="Intro"/>{{page needed|date=February 2022}}</blockquote>

===Forming quire===
From the Carolingian period to the end of the Middle Ages, different styles of folding the quire came about. For example, in continental Europe throughout the Middle Ages, the quire was put into a system in which each side folded on to the same style.{{clarify|date=October 2020}} The hair side met the hair side and the flesh side to the flesh side. This was not the same style used in the British Isles, where the membrane was folded so that it turned out an eight-leaf quire, with single leaves in the third and sixth positions.<ref name="Intro" /> The next stage was tacking the quire. Tacking is when the scribe would hold together the leaves in quire with thread. Once threaded together, the scribe would then sew a line of parchment up the "spine" of the manuscript to protect the tacking.{{citation needed|date=November 2018}}

===Materials===
The materials codices are made with are their support, and include papyrus, parchment (sometimes referred to as membrane or vellum), and paper. They are written and drawn on with metals, [[pigment]]s, and [[ink]].<ref name="Byzantium">{{cite book |last1=McCormick |first1=Michael |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium |last2=Gamillscheg |first2=Ernst |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1991 |isbn=9780195046526 |editor-last=Kazhdan |editor-first=Alexander P. |chapter=Codicology}}</ref> The quality, size, and choice of support determine the status of a codex. Papyrus is found only in late antiquity and the [[Early Middle Ages]]. Codices intended for display were bound with more durable materials than vellum.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Pearsal |first=Derek |title=The Oxford Companion to the Book |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=9780198606536 |editor-last=Suarez |editor-first=Michael |chapter=Codicology |editor-last2=Woudhuysen |editor-first2=H. R.}}</ref> Parchment varied widely due to animal species and finish, and identification of animals used to make it has only begun to be studied in the 21st century. How manufacturing influenced the final products, technique, and style, is little understood. However, changes in style are underpinned more by variation in technique.<ref name=":1">{{cite book |title=The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2013 |isbn=9780195395365 |editor-last=Hourihane |editor-first=Colum P. |chapter=Codicology}}</ref> Before the 14th and 15th centuries, paper was expensive, and its use may mark off the deluxe copy.<ref name=":0" />

===Structure===
The structure of a codex includes its size, format/''ordinatio''<ref name=":0" /> (its quires or gatherings),<ref name=":1" /> consisting of sheets folded a number of times, often twice- a ''bifolio'',<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gamillscheg|first1=Ernst|last2=Ševčenko|first2=Ihor|editor-last=Kazhdan|editor-first=Alexander P.|title=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=1991|isbn=9780195046526|chapter=Quire}}</ref> sewing, [[bookbinding]], and rebinding. A quire consisted of a number of folded sheets inserting into one another- at least three, but most commonly four bifolia,<ref name="Byzantium" /> that is eight sheets and sixteen pages:<ref name=":1" /> Latin quaternio or Greek tetradion, which became a synonym for quires.<ref name="Byzantium" /> Unless an exemplar (text to be copied) was copied exactly, format differed.<ref name=":0" /> In preparation for writing codices, ruling patterns were used that determined the layout of each page. Holes were prickled with a spiked lead wheel and a circle. Ruling was then applied separately on each page or once through the top folio.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1991 |isbn=9780195046526 |editor-last=Kazhdan |editor-first=Alexander P. |chapter=Ruling Patterns}}</ref> Ownership markings, decorations, and [[Illuminated manuscript|illumination]] are also a part of it.<ref name="Terminology">{{cite book|last=Beal|first=Peter|title=A Dictionary of English Manuscript Terminology 1450–2000|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2008|isbn=9780199576128|chapter=codicology}}</ref><ref name="Byzantium" /> They are specific to the [[Scriptorium|scriptoria]], or any production center, and libraries of codices.<ref name="Byzantium" />

===Pages===
Watermarks may provide, although often approximate, dates for when the copying occurred. The layout (size of the margin and the number of lines) is determined. There may be textual articulations, [[Page header|running heads]], openings, [[Chapter (books)|chapters]], and [[paragraph]]s. Space was reserved for illustrations and decorated guide letters. The apparatus of books for scholars became more elaborate during the 13th and 14th centuries when chapter, verse, [[page numbering]], marginalia finding guides, [[Index (publishing)|indexes]], [[Glossary|glossaries]], and [[Table of contents|tables of contents]] were developed.<ref name=":0" />

===The ''libraire''===
By a close examination of the physical attributes of a codex, it is sometimes possible to match up long-separated elements originally from the same book. In 13th-century [[Publishing|book publishing]], due to secularization, stationers or ''libraires'' emerged. They would receive commissions for texts, which they would contract out to scribes, illustrators, and binders, to whom they supplied materials. Due to the systematic format used for assembly by the ''libraire'', the structure can be used to reconstruct the original order of a manuscript. However, complications can arise in the study of a codex. Manuscripts were frequently rebound, and this resulted in a particular codex incorporating works of different dates and origins, thus different internal structures. Additionally, a binder could alter or unify these structures to ensure a better fit for the new binding.<ref name="Companion">{{Cite book |last=Hunter |first=Timothy |title=The Oxford Companion to Western Art |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2001 |isbn=9780198662037 |editor-last=Brigstocke |editor-first=Hugh |chapter=Codicology}}</ref> Completed quires or books of quires might constitute independent book units- booklets, which could be returned to the stationer, or combined with other texts to make anthologies or miscellanies. Exemplars were sometimes divided into quires for simultaneous copying and loaned out to students for study. To facilitate this, catchwords were used- a word at the end of a page providing the next page's first word.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Margaret M. |title=The Oxford Companion to the Book |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2010 |isbn=9780198606536 |editor-last=Suarez |editor-first=Michael |chapter=Catchword |editor-last2=Woudhuysen |editor-first2=H. R.}}</ref>