Certificate of Achievement
has completed the following course:
Global Codex: Hidden Stories of Books Across Cultures
Keio University and British Library
This online course took learners through manuscripts and rare books across cultures, uncovering what their physical form reveals about the cultures that made them. It compared codex traditions from Japan, China, Europe, the Islamicate world, and Southeast Asia, examining shape, binding, paper, covers, illustration, and pigment, alongside personalisation, haptic experience of reading, and modern research methods such as statistical codicology and AI-driven analysis.
3 weeks, 3 hours per week
Takahiro Sasaki
Professor of Institute of Oriental Classics
Keio University
Satoko Tokunaga
Professor of Faculty of Letters
British Library
Transcript
Learning outcomes
- Explain the historical development and significance of the codex as a book form.
- Identify and describe the key physical and structural features of codices from different traditions using appropriate terminology.
- Compare codex bindings across cultures and historical periods.
- Engage in close observation and analysis of books as historical artefacts.
- Reflect on what books can tell us about the cultural exchanges and global connections.
Syllabus
- The definition and origins of the codex
- Comparative binding traditions across Japan, Dunhuang (China), Korea, Europe, the Greek and Islamicate worlds, and Southeast Asia
- Shape, proportion, and paper in codices across cultures
- Hidden materials and stories within books
- Illustration, pigments, and colour in book traditions
- The personal and cultural dimensions of collecting and personalising books
- Traditional, digital, and scientific approaches to researching book history
- The sensory and haptic experience of books
Issued on 5th October 2026
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