Codicology

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Peter Anthony Stokes (Paris Science et Lettres)

Ed. by Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast
The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

Domains

Language & Linguistics
Literature (all)

Dates

Date of occurrence c.100- c.1500

Places

Europe (Location)

Codicology is the study of the physical structure of manuscript books, or codices, from the Middle Ages. It includes the manufacture of the material to be written on (papyrus, parchment, paper, and so on), the preparation of that material after manufacture, and arrangement of the material after writing into its final form, such as a book or roll. The discussion here focuses on the most commonly surviving form from the medieval West, namely parchment or paper bound in a book or “codex”, but many other materials and arrangements are found throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

Parchment

The origin of parchment is associated with Eumenes II of Pergamum (197-159 BC), who is said to have developed the …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2340 words

Citation: Stokes, Peter Anthony. "Codicology". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 October 2006 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1679, accessed 01 November 2024.]

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Codicology

Domains

Dates

Places

Save this article

Leave Feedback