The ‘Non-Unitary’ Greek Codex: Typologies and Terminology

The contribution provides a broad view of the textual typologies on the basis of which Byzantine codices can be lumped together (albeit limited to materially unitary volumes). In particular, the relationships between the size, thickness of the book, number, length and position of texts, textual typology and degree of thematic consistency, and the exploitation of the page are observed. Also drawn attention to are factors which, depending on the various eras, influenced the unification of content, a phenomenon that shows obvious growth in the closing centuries of the Middle Byzantine period. Far from being a chance phenomenon, the simultaneous presence of multiple texts within one and same codex seems to be determined by material concerns, and is governed by the essential antinomy between the length of texts (expressed as the number of leaves) and the aesthetic and functional requisites that the book in the form of a codex cannot disregard.