Jews,
Christians,
and Others: Late Antique Perceptions of
Book Formats
Scrolls,
Notebooks,
Codices, and More: The Early History of
Book Formats in Texts and Art
by Robert A. Kraft
Context and
Orientation:
What I hope to do here is to show, in text and images, some of the main issues (and artistic perceptions) that relate to the early history of book formats, up to the 6th century of the common era (Justinian, Ravenna) and sometimes beyond.
The possible role of early Jewish
book producers -- especially of the Greek speaking kind -- in this
process
of transition from scroll to codex has been largely neglected. I
readily admit
to my methodological prejudice, whereby for anything that is found in
early
Christianity the first
place
I look for connections and continuities is
the
situation in Jewish circles. Put bluntly, my assumption is that early
Christian developments
are
Jewish until shown otherwise. There is ample evidence in support of
such a
principle. Whether it also applies to this bibliotechnic situation
remains to
be seen.