The Triumph of the Codex

The Triumph of the Codex: The Manuscript Book before 1100

Summary

• The codex began around the same time that Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire which is why the bible is written in book form instead of scroll form. Since papyrus cracked when folded they started using parchment made of sheepskin or goatskin and vellum made of calfskin. The Bible first featured a 4 column layout and then went to one  or two column layout. 
• Certain scripts were used for Gospel-books and certain scripts were used for casual letters. They would never have the same script. At the same time, Gospel-books were written by the most famous or best scribes around while letters would be written by lower scribes. 
• The Irish created the present day punctuation system by creating dots. Depending on how many dots and how high or low they were placed on the line determined how long of a pause was necessary between words. 

Comment

• Its interesting that King Alfred established schools for boys especially to learn to read and write but girls had to attend monastic schools under the nuns and living by religious vows. Girls were definitely held under closer protection but even with all that they could be authors or scribes along with the boys. 

Question

• Why do you think the different scribes were so important for different types of writing? Why do we not use different types of scripts like they did then to write formal and informal pieces now?