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A '''codex''' is an early form of the modern [[book]].  Originally, "books" were individual [[scroll]]s in a given work which may have included several scrolls.  Developed in the [[First Century]] C.E.,  the [[Roman]] "codex" (stemming from the word "trunk", as in "tree trunk") came to refer to the modern-style book -- that is, a series of papers folded repeatedly into "signatures" sewn together at one fold and placed inside a cover to form a whole.  

In the 5th century, [[Isidore of Seville]] explained the relation between codex, book and scroll in the [[Etymologiae]]: "''A codex is composed of many books; a book is of one scroll. It is called codex by way of metaphor from the trunks (codex) of trees or vines, as if it were a wooden stock, because it contains in itself a multitude of books, as it were of branches.''"

In modern scholarship, a codex tends to refer to a ''handwritten'' or copied book, as opposed to a modern printed book; that is, most books predating the [[Gutenburg Bible]] in Europe.

The plural of codex is ''codices''.



[[Category: Books]]