Editing Book (section)

=== Codex ===
{{main|Codex}}
[[File:Bamboo book - binding - UCR.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Chinese [[bamboo and wooden slips|bamboo book]]s meet the modern definition of ''codex''. This particular bamboo book is a copy of [[Sun Tzu]]'s ''[[The Art of War]]''.]]
The codex is the ancestor of the modern book, consisting of sheets of uniform size [[bookbinding|bound]] along one edge and typically held between two covers made of some more robust material. [[Isidore of Seville]] (died 636) explained the then-current relation between a codex, book, and scroll in his ''[[Etymologiae]]'' (VI.13): "A codex is composed of many books; a book is of one scroll. It is called codex by way of metaphor from the trunks (''codex'') of trees or vines, as if it were a wooden stock, because it contains in itself a multitude of books, as it were of branches".

The first written mention of the codex as a form of book is from [[Martial]], in his ''Apophoreta'' <small>CLXXXIV</small> at the end of the first century, where he praises its compactness. However, the codex never gained much popularity in the pagan Hellenistic world, and only within the Christian community did it gain widespread use.<ref>''The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature''. Edd. Frances Young, Lewis Ayres, Andrew Louth, Ron White. Cambridge University Press 2004, pp. 8–9.</ref> This change happened gradually during the 3rd and 4th centuries, and the reasons for adopting the codex form of the book were several: the format was more economical than the scroll, as both sides of the writing material can be used; and it was portable, searchable, and easier to conceal. The Christian [[author]]s may also have wanted to distinguish their writings from the pagan and Judaic texts written on scrolls.

The codices of [[pre-Columbian Mesoamerica]] had the same form as the European codex, but were instead made with long folded strips of either fig bark ([[amatl]]) or plant fibers, often with a layer of [[whitewash]] applied before writing. [[New World]] codices were written as late as the 16th century (see [[Maya codices]] and [[Aztec codex|Aztec codices]]). Those written before the Spanish conquests seem all to have been single long sheets folded concertina-style, sometimes written on both sides of the local ''[[amatl]]'' paper.