Codicology (Study of Books)

Codicology Facts:

• Codicology is the study of books as physical objects.
• Particularly refers to manuscipts written on parchment (paper) in codex (modern book) form.
• Has been described as 'the archeology of the book'.
• Included in the discipline is the examination of materials & techniques used in making books.
• Relates also to the study of manuscripts, as artifacts, in their cultural context.
  
• Some definitions include paleography (study of handwriting) within the field of codicology.
  

Codicology History:

• Codicology - from Latin cōdex & Greek -λογία, -logia.
• The term codicology is of recent origin.
• There is some argument as to whether the inventor was the classical philologist Alphonse Dain or the historian Charles Samaran.
• Likely that Charles Samaran invented codicography, based on the term paleography, with Alphonse Dain then deriving codicology from this.

Image - Istanbul Book Illustration by docman (cc)

Posted by ALCHEssMIST.
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