Codicology

Codicology studies handwritten books as physical objects, examining their materials, structure, format, and evidence of production and use.

Quire: A group of folded sheets nested or arranged together to form part of a book. Quire structure exposes how a manuscript’s gatherings were assembled and ordered.
Codex: A book made of sheets folded and joined along one edge, rather than a continuous scroll. Codicology chiefly examines the physical form represented by the codex.
Manuscript description: A systematic account of a manuscript’s contents, physical features, and history. Codicological observations form the material core of detailed manuscript descriptions.
Bernhard Bischoff: A German scholar of Latin palaeography and medieval manuscript culture. His scholarship helped establish rigorous study of the physical and historical evidence in manuscripts.
Textual criticism: The comparison of textual witnesses to establish or interpret the history of a text. It prioritizes textual variation, while codicology focuses on the book as a physical object.
Folio: A sheet of material folded once to make two leaves in a book. Folio structure helps describe both manuscript format and the arrangement of leaves.
Manuscript: A document or book written by hand rather than produced through printing. Codicology studies the material objects that survive as handwritten manuscripts.
Provenance: The documented history of an object’s ownership and custody. Bindings, annotations, and marks can help trace a manuscript’s movement between owners.
Ludwig Traube: A German philologist whose work advanced the study of medieval Latin manuscripts. Traube’s manuscript scholarship helped shape the historical study of book production.
Diplomatics: The study of the form, authenticity, and transmission of documentary records. Diplomatics analyzes documents as records; codicology examines their material construction.

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