The codex (plural codices / ˈ k oʊ d ə s iː z /) was the historical ancestor of the modern book.Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials.The term codex is often used for ancient manuscript books, with handwritten contents. A codex, much like the modern book, is bound by stacking the pages and securing one set of …

This is a list of notable codices.. For the purposes of this compilation, as in philology, a "codex" is a manuscript book published from the late Antiquity period through the Middle Ages. (The majority of the books in both the list of manuscripts and list of illuminated manuscripts are codices.) More modern works that include "codex" as part of their name are not listed here.