In addition to Christianity, the codex was taken up by other Abrahamic religions, and it accompanied their geographical spread. Through Persian works, the codex was later introduced into South Asia alongside their Indic palm leaf tradition. And, after several innovations in printing, it also spread with colonialism and imperialism, until it became the default book form in nearly every global context.

The oldest Hebrew manuscripts exist as scrolls (often called the Dead Sea Scrolls), but a few manuscript codices from circa the 9th–10th centuries survive as well. This large illuminated bound manuscript, different from the more commonly encountered Torah scrolls, contains the Hebrew Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) with an Aramaic Targum, or paraphrase between the lines, and some other selections, and was copied by Solomon ben Neriyah in 1313, likely in Eastern Europe. It was rebound in pigskin, most likely in the 16th century, possibly in Germany or Bohemia. The binding was restored in 1968.

Bequest of William H. Scheide ’36, 2015

Scheide 46.2

For further reading

Berkowitz, David Sandler. In remembrance of creation: evolution of art and scholarship in the Medieval and Renaissance Bible. Waltham: Brandeis University Press, 1968. Entry 16.

Under Persian influence, the codex form using paper also came to be used for Hindu works in Sanskrit, as is shown by this Rāmacandracandrikā. According to Keśavadāsa’s own account, the sage Vālmīki appeared to him in a dream, and he undertook the sacred task of singing the praises of Rāma. The poem is based on the Rāmāyaṇa, a text central to many of the cultures in Asia.

Gift of Robert Garrett, Class of 1897, 1942

Garrett Indic Manuscript 1

For further reading

Bahadur, K.P. (tr.) Selections from Rāmacandrikā of Keśavadāsa. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1976.

The lower cover here is extended creating a protective fore-edge covering and a flap to be placed under the upper cover. Such flaps could double as bookmarks. Already in use in fourth-century Coptic books, this type of binding became distinctive for Islamic works. This opening with its multicolored headpiece is a gloss on a commentary of an abridgment of the Key to Knowledge by al-Sakkākī. The binding may have been added later to the original text.

Gift of Robert Garrett, Class of 1897, 1942

Garrett Islamic Manuscripts 421H

For further reading

Bella, Marco di. “From box binding to envelope-flap binding: the missing link in transitional Islamic bookbinding.” Suave mechanicals: essays on the history of bookbinding 3 (2016): 165-79.

Princeton has one of the largest and most significant collections of Gəˁəz (classical Ethiopic) manuscripts in the Americas, dating from the 1600s into the 1900s; The making of Gəˁəz manuscripts is still a living tradition in the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥədo Church. Here, in the paintings for a pre-1400 story titled Scribe with Golden Ink, an Ethiopian scribe copies the book of the Miracles of Our Lady Mary in one painting and, in the next, Mary shows him where his name is on a golden pillar in heaven.

Princeton Ethiopic 57

For further reading

Belcher, Wendy Laura, Jeremy R. Brown, Mehari Worku, Dawit Muluneh and Evgeniia Lambrinaki. “The Ethiopian stories about the Miracles of the Virgin Mary (Täˀammərä Maryam).” In Ethiopia at the crossroads, edited by Christine Sciacca, 299-305. Baltimore: The Walters Art Museum, 2023.

Princeton Department of Comparative Literature and Princeton Department of African American Studies. PEMM: Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project. Accessed May 20, 2025. https://pemm.princeton.edu/en-us

A Persian contribution to bookbinding is lacquered bindings. First developed in the 15th century, they became increasingly popular in the 18th–19th centuries. Covers were prepared with gesso, painted with flora or fauna, and then varnished in several layers. With the spread of Persianate culture the practice also reached India, as seen here in a version of the love story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. The binding may slightly postdate the text. Please look online for the beautiful text and illustrations inside.

Gift of Robert Garrett, Class of 1897, 1942

Garrett no. 71G

For further reading

Duda, Dorothea. “Islamische Lackeinbände: ihre künstlerische Entwicklung und ihr Verhältnis zum Buch als Gesamtkunstwerk.” Journal of Turkish Studies 26, no. 1 (2002): 163-203.

From the 16th century onwards the Franciscan Jacobo de Testera used a pictorial writing system to teach the Christian catechism to indigenous peoples of Mexico unfamiliar with alphabetic writing. The pictorial content, however, has little relationship to traditional Mexican paintings. This manuscript was meant for the Otomí, an indigenous people in Mexico. They use different native terms for themselves and their languages, which is why the foreign term Otomí, derived from Nahuatl, is still in common use when referring to these groups as a whole.

Gift of Robert Garrett, Class of 1897, 1942

Garrett Mesoamerican Manuscripts, no. 3a

For further reading

Wright Carr, David Charles. Manuscritos otomíes en la Biblioteca Newberry y la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Princeton. Guanajuata : Ediciones La Rana, 2006.

The codex form remained in use through the transition from manuscript to print, and from parchment to paper, during the Renaissance; as is seen here in a 1470 Virgil from this transitional period, printed by Vindelinus de Spira. Transitional, because the book is actually printed on parchment, not paper, and it has a hand-painted illumination in red, blue, green, and gold as was common in manuscripts. Its later binding is red goatskin, with marbled paper inside.

Gift of Junius S. Morgan, Class of 1888

VRG 2945.1470q

For further reading

Alexander, Jonathan J.G. The painted book in Renaissance Italy: 1450-1600. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.

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