Codicology

Codicology (from the Latin codex — 'book' and the Greek logos — 'study') is an auxiliary historical-philological discipline that studies the manuscript book (codex) as an integral material object: the writing material (parchment, paper), format, structure of gatherings, ruling, binding, decoration, and also the history of the manuscript's creation, circulation, and preservation. Unlike paleography, which focuses on script as such, codicology considers the book comprehensively, in the totality of all its physical features, which makes it possible to date, localize, and reconstruct the history of a monument. Codicology is closely linked to paleography, filigranology, textology, and bibliology. Its methods are important for studying early Ukrainian manuscript books — the Ostromir Gospel, the Izborniks of Sviatoslav, the Peresopnytsia Gospel. Ukrainian codicology and the description of manuscript collections were developed by Lidiia Dubrovina and the scholarly school of the Institute of Manuscript of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine.