codex
n. countablen. an ancient book made of handwritten pages that are bound together. Before this invention, people usually wrote long texts on scrolls.
n. an ancient manuscript text in book form, composed of individual sheets of parchment or papyrus bound together. Historically distinguished from the scroll, which it eventually replaced as the standard medium for long-form writing.
The museum displays a famous codex from the fourth century.
Scholars traveled across the continent to examine the original codex for clues about early medieval law.
The transition from the scroll to the codex represented a significant technological shift, allowing readers to navigate long texts more efficiently by simply turning pages rather than unrolling long sheets.
From Latin cōdex, variant form of caudex (“tree trunk, book, notebook”); compare caudex (in botany). Doublet of code.
The plural form is 'codices'.
the ancient codexesthe ancient codicesThe standard plural of codex follows its Latin root, changing the ending to -ices.