Communication · c. 100 CE

Codex (bound book)

Pages stacked and bound at one edge replace the scroll and invent the book as we know it.

Romans adopted the codex in the 1st century CE; Martial praised pocket editions around 85 CE and early Christians favored it. Codices allowed random access to any page, writing on both sides, and indexes, and by about 500 CE they had largely replaced the scroll.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Parchment 200 BCE

What it led to 1

Movable-type printing press 1440

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Manuscript production per century, Italy Latest: 1.42M manuscripts (1400) Source: Our World in Data

Books consumed per person, Western Europe Latest: 0.12 books per person per year (1775) Source: Our World in Data