Common Era

Image of a codex.

While there have been several "common eras," as the term typically refers to the most current era humanity is in, the term has special meaning for the history of writing. The beginning of the Common Era, or first century, in regard to writing, is marked by the invention of the codex. The codex was a revolutionary form of physical writing that brought a new accessibility to reading. The Common Era brought a new wave of technology and information for writers and readers everywhere.

Previous reading technology included scrolls, clay tablets, and sheets of unbounded parchment paper. These were all unwieldy for different reasons. Scrolls were long, singular pieces of writing that had to be unrolled in order to read, and were typically too long to be unrolled all at once. It was not a space-conscious form of reading. Clay tablets were heavy, and during a time when reading was commonly read aloud to wide groups of people, this wasn't sustainable for the reader to hold during their presentation. Parchment paper is the closest to the codex without the finalization of being bound together with string on the spine. Another aspect of the codex that popularized it was its cover. Paper and information had to travel long distances during the Common Era and had to be protected from the elements. The codex cover helped shelter the important script on those journeys.

For the invention and use of the codex to be so integral for the Common Era, the two are inextricable from each other.