kodeksai

Kodeksai are the plural form of kodeksas in Lithuanian, referring to codices or bound manuscript books. In palaeography and codicology, kodeksai are distinguished from scrolls by their physical structure: leaves bound together along one edge, with writing on both sides, arranged into gatherings called quires. They circulated from late antiquity onward and became a predominant format for many texts in the medieval and early modern periods.

Most kodeksai survive as illuminated manuscripts or text manuscripts, written on parchment, vellum, or paper. They preserve literary, religious, scientific, and administrative texts, and their study yields information on scribal practices, book production, and textual transmission. The codex format facilitated indexing, marginalia, and cross-referencing, features that influenced the organization of knowledge in various cultures.

Famous examples of well-known kodeksai include Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, early Christian biblical manuscripts; the Codex Gigas of the 13th century; and the Voynich Manuscript, notable for its unknown script and content. These exemplars illustrate diversity in script, language, and decoration found across different regions and periods.

In modern times, the term kodeksai also covers digitized editions and online repositories that preserve scanned codices, allowing scholars worldwide to examine manuscript evidence without handling fragile originals. In Lithuanian scholarship, kodeksas and kodeksai are used in historical, philological, and codicological discussions to describe manuscript books and their textual contents.