CODEX

A manuscript: in its original sense (Latin) the inner bark of a tree, which was used for the purposes of writing. The word was thence transferred by the Romans to signify a piece of writing, on whatever material j e. g. with the stylus on tablets lined with war, or on a roll of parchment or paper. In modern Latin, a manuscript volume. Codex rescriptvs or palimpsestua is a manuscript consisting of leaves, from which some earlier writing has been erased in order to afford room for the insertion ol more recent. Many such codices exist; and from the imperfect nature of the erasing proce , the earlier writing has in some instances been restored. Considerable fragments of cla ical works, previously considered as lost, have been thus recovered by the Abate Mai from among the contents of the Ambrosian Library at Milan. [s. 258]