the great work of reference in their hands, could only be consulted with convenience and despatch in the new form. A single codex could hold the contents of a work which formerly must have been distributed through many volumes in roll-form. The term σωμάτιον, which was one of the names given to a codex, was expressive of its capacity. Turning again to discoveries in Egypt, it appears that in the early centuries the codex-form had become so usual among the Christians in that land that even the native material, papyrus, the recognized material for the roll, was now also made up by them into leaved books. The greater number of papyri of the 3rd century containing Christian writings, fragments of the Scriptures, the “Sayings of Our Lord,” and the like, are in book-form. On the other hand, the large majority of the non-Christian papyri of the same period keep to the old roll-form. Thus the codex becomes at once identified with the new religion, while the papyrus roll to the last is the chosen vehicle of pagan literature.
In the 4th century the struggle between the roll and the codex for supremacy in the literary field was finished, and the victory of the codex was achieved. Henceforward the roll-form remained in use for records and legal documents, and in certain instances for liturgies; and for such purposes it survives to the present day. But so completely was it superseded in literature by the codex that even when papyrus, the material once identified with the roll-form, was used as it sometimes was down to the 6th and 7th centuries and later, it was made up into the leaved codex, not only in Egypt but also in western Europe.
The shape which the codex usually assumed in the early centuries of the middle ages was the broad quarto. The quires or gatherings of which the book was formed generally consisted, in the earliest examples, of four sheets folded to make eight leaves (τετράς or τετράδιον, quaternio), Quires. although occasionally quinterns, or quires of five sheets (ten leaves), were adopted. Sexterns, or quires of six sheets (twelve leaves), came into use at a later period. In making up the quires, care was generally taken to lay the sheets of vellum in such a way that hair-side faced hair-side, and flesh-side faced flesh-side; so that, when the book was opened, the two pages before the reader had the same appearance, either the yellow tinge of the hair-side, or the fresh whiteness of the flesh-side. In Greek MSS. the arrangement of the sheets was afterwards reduced to a system; the first sheet was laid with the flesh-side downwards, so that that side began the quire; yet in so early an example as the Codex Alexandrinus the first page of a quire is the hair-side. In Latin MSS. also the hair-side appears generally to have formed the first page. When paper came into general use for codices in the 15th century, it was not an uncommon practice to give the paper quires additional strength by an admixture of vellum, a sheet of the latter material forming the outer leaves, and sometimes the middle leaves also, of the quire. The quire mark, or “signature,” was usually written at the foot of the last page, but in some early instances (e.g. the Codex Alexandrinus) it appears at the head of the first page of each quire. The numbering of the separate leaves in a quire, in the fashion followed by early printers, came in in the 14th century. Catch-words to connect the quires appear first in the 11th century and are not uncommon in the 12th century.
No exact system was followed in ruling the guiding lines on the pages of the codex. In the case of papyri it was enough to mark with the pencil the vertical marginal lines to bound the text, if indeed even this was considered needful (see above); the fibres of the papyrus were a sufficient guide Ruling. for the lines of writing. On vellum it became necessary to rule lines to keep the writing even. These lines were at first drawn with a blunt point, almost invariably on the hair (or outer) side of the skin, and strongly enough to be in relief on the flesh (or inner) side. Marginal lines were drawn to bound the text laterally; but the ruled lines which guided the writing were not infrequently drawn right across the sheet. Each sheet should be ruled separately; but two or more sheets were often laid and ruled together, the lines being drawn with so much force that the lower sheets also received the impressions. In rare instances lines are found ruled on both sides of the leaf, as in some parts of the Codex Alexandrinus. In this same MS. and in other early codices the ruling was not always drawn for every line of writing, but was occasionally spaced so that the writing ran between the ruled lines as well as on them. The lines were evenly spaced by means of guiding pricks made at measured intervals with a compass or rotary instrument down the margins; in some early MSS. these pricks run down the middle of the page. Ruling with the plummet or lead-point is found in the 11th century and came into ordinary use in the 12th century; coloured inks, e.g. red and violet, were used for ornamental ruling in the 15th century.
Mechanical Arrangement of Writing in MSS.—It has already been stated above that in the papyrus rolls the text was written in columns. They stood with convenient intervals between them and with fair margins at top and bottom. The length of the lines was to some extent governed Columns. by the nature of the text. If it was a poetical work, the metrical line was naturally the line of the column, unless, as sometimes was the case, the verse was written continuously as prose. For prose works a narrow column was preferred. It is noticeable that the columns in papyri have a tendency to lean to the right instead of being perpendicular—an indication that it was not the practice to rule marginal lines. In codices the columnar arrangement was also largely followed, and the number of columns in a page was commonly two. There are instances, however, of a larger number. The Codex Sinaiticus of the Bible has four columns to the page; and the Codex Vaticanus, three columns. And the tricolumnar arrangement occurs every now and then in later MSS.
In both Greek and Latin literary MSS. of early date the writing runs on continuously without separation of words. This practice however, may be regarded as rather artificial, as in papyri written in non-literary hands and in Latin deeds also, contemporary with these early literary Text without separation of Words. MSS., there is a tendency to separation. In a text thus continuously written occasional ambiguities necessarily occurred, and then a dot or apostrophe might be inserted between words to aid the reader. Following the system of separation of words which appears in ancient inscriptions, wherein the several words are marked off by single, double, or treble dots or points, the words of the fragmentary poem on the battle of Actium found at Herculaneum are separated by single points, probably to facilitate reading aloud; monosyllables or short prepositions and conjunctions, however, being left unseparated from the words immediately following them—a system which is found in practice at a later time. But such marks of separation are not to be confounded with similar marks of punctuation whereby sentences are marked off and the sense of the text is made clear. Throughout the career of the uncial codices down to the 6th century, continuity of text was maintained. In the 7th century there is some evidence of separation of words, but without system. In early Latin minuscule codices partial separation in an uncertain and hesitating manner went on to the time of the Carolingian reform. In early Irish and English MSS., however, separation is more consistently practised. In the 9th and 10th centuries long words tend to separation, but short words, prepositions and conjunctions, still cling to the following word. It was not till the 11th century that the smaller words at length stood apart, and systematic separation of words was established. In Greek minuscule codices of the 10th century a certain degree of separation takes place; yet a large proportion of words remain linked together, and they are even incorrectly divided. Indeed a correct system of distinct separation of words in Greek texts was never thoroughly established even as late as the 15th century.
But while distinction of words was disregarded in early literary texts, distinction of important pauses in the sense was recognized from the first. The papyrus of the Persae of Timotheus of Miletus, the oldest MS. of a Greek classic in existence, of the end of the 4th century B.C., is written Paragraphs. in independent paragraphs. This is a natural system, the simplicity of which has caused it to be the system of modern
