Codicology
Codicology or manuscriptology is the study of codices or manuscript books. It is often referred to as "the archaeology of the book," a term coined by François Masai. It concerns itself with the materials, tools and techniques used to make codices, along with their features.
The demarcation of codicology is not clear-cut. Some view codicology as a discipline complete in itself, while others see it as auxiliary to textual criticism analysis and transmission, which is studied by philology. Codicologists may also study the history of libraries, manuscript collecting, book cataloguing, and scribes, which otherwise belongs to the history of the book. Some codicologists say that their field encompasses palaeography, the study of handwriting, while some palaeographers say that their field encompasses codicology. The study of written features such as marginalia, glosses, ownership inscriptions, etc. falls in both camps, as does the study of the physical aspects of decoration, which otherwise belongs to art history. Unlike traditional palaeography, codicology places more emphasis on the cultural aspect of books. The focus on material is referred to as stricto sensu codicology, while a broader approach, incorporating palaeography, philology, art history, and the history of the book, is referred to as lato sensu codicology, and the exact meaning depends on the codicologist's view.
Palaeographic techniques are used along with codicological techniques. Analysis of the work of the scribe, script styles and their variations, may reveal the book's character, value, purpose, date, and the importance attached to its different parts.
Many incunabula, books printed up to the year 1500, were finished wholly or partly by hand, so they belong to the domain of codicology.
Study of codices
Materials
The materials codices are made with are their support, and include papyrus, parchment, and paper. They are written and drawn on with metals, pigments and ink. The quality, size, and choice of support determine the status of a codex. Papyrus is found only in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Codices intended for display were bound with more durable materials than vellum. Parchment varied widely due to animal species and finish, and identification of animals used to make it has only begun to be studied in the 21st century. How manufacturing influenced the final products, technique, and style, is little understood. However, changes in style are underpinned more by variation in technique. Before the 14th and 15th century, paper was expensive, and its use may mark off the deluxe copy.Structure
The structure of a codex includes its size, format/ordinatio, sewing, bookbinding and rebinding. A quire consisted of a number of folded sheets inserting into one another- at least three, but most commonly four bifolia, that is eight sheets and sixteen pages: Latin quaternio or Greek tetradion, which became a synonym for quires. Unless an exemplar was copied exactly, format differed. In preparation for writing codices, ruling patterns were used that determined the layout of each page. Holes were prickled with a spiked lead wheel and a circle. Ruling was then applied separately on each page or once through the top folio. Ownership markings, decorations and illumination are also studied. As these features are dependent on time and place, codicology determines characteristics specific to the scriptoria, or any production center, and libraries of codices.Pages
Watermarks may provide, although often approximate, dates for when the copying occurred. The layout – size of the margin and the number of lines – is determined. There may be textual articulations, running heads, openings, chapters and paragraphs. Space was reserved for illustrations and decorated guide letters. The apparatus of books for scholars became more elaborate during the 13th and 14th centuries when chapter, verse, page numbering, marginalia finding guides, indexes, glossaries and tables of contents were developed.The ''libraire''
By a close examination of the physical attributes of a codex, it is sometimes possible to match up long-separated elements originally from the same book. In 13th century book publishing, due to secularization, stationers or libraires emerged. They would receive commissions for texts, which they would contract out to scribes, illustrators, and binders, to whom they supplied materials. Due to the systematic format used for assembly by the libraire, the structure can be used to reconstruct the original order of a manuscript. However, complications can arise in the study of a codex. Manuscripts were frequently rebound, and this resulted in a particular codex incorporating works of different dates and origins, thus different internal structures. Additionally, a binder could alter or unify these structures to ensure a better fit for the new binding. Completed quires or books of quires might constitute independent book units- booklets, which could be returned to the stationer, or combined with other texts to make anthologies or miscellanies. Exemplars were sometimes divided into quires for simultaneous copying and loaned out to students for study. To facilitate this, catchwords were used- a word at the end of a page providing the next page's first word.History
Origins
The study of manuscripts has a long tradition, but codicology has a short history. In the fifteenth century, two works published under the title De laude scriptorium, praised manuscripts and the works of copyists. One was written by Jean Gerson, a Parisian theologian, and the other by Johann Trithemius, the abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Sponheim. In the 16th and 17th centuries, as the study of manuscripts advanced, disputes between philologists and theologians occurred. In the 17th century, the Bollandists collected hagiographes and critically examined their contents and origins. The Maurists contributed to historical and critical analysis of texts, and Jean Mabilon is considered the father of palaeography and diplomatics. Basic principles of codicology were formulated in 1739 by Maurist monk Bernard de Montfaucon. In 1819, Heinrich Stein established the Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde, which published Monumenta Germaniae Historica and studies on medieval codices. In 1821, the École Nationale des Chartes was established, and one of the most active manuscript researchers was Leopold Delisle.In 1825, the librarian Adolph Ebert published a monograph on diplomatics, epigraphy and what he called Bücherhandschrifftenkunde - "the science of internal and external features of manuscripts". In 1909, the philologist Ludwig Traube makes a distinction between paleography and Handschrifftenkunde. To Traube, paleography deals with deciphering writing, interpreting abbreviations and finding textual errors, as well as dating and locating the manuscript. Handschrifftenkunde studies the material elements of the codex, its preparation, and writings not part of the text itself, like annotations.
However, the general tradition up until the 20th century viewed palaeography as not only encompassing the script, but everything used to date the manuscript. Victor Gardthausen in his "Greek Palaeography" divided palaeography into Buchwesen and Schriftwesen. Up to the early 1930s, the study of manuscripts had also been linked to literary history and philology.
Codicology has been studied in a coherent fashion since the late 19th century. Charles Samaran proposed the term codicography in 1934, which he understood as parallel to bibliography, the study of printed books; making manuscript science separate from philology. The term codicology was coined by Alphonse Dain in his 1949 book Les manuscrits to mean the study of manuscripts' external features – history, collections, catalogs – as he also understood the study of material aspects and internal features to belong to palaeography.