The codex replaces the scroll
Pages bound at one edge make text randomly accessible for the first time.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 300 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Classical, Holocene
The codex — folded sheets sewn along a spine — spreads through the Roman world from the first century CE and has largely displaced the scroll by the fourth. It is cheaper, uses both sides of the sheet, holds far more, and can be opened at any point rather than wound through. Early Christians adopt it almost exclusively, which is one reason it won. Every book since is this format.