Johnson 2009

bookrolls: books on papyrus rolls; first represention on a Greek vase, c5, but in use by Greeks at least 2000 years before that (256); columns laid out running left to right, always between ~2-3.5" wide, usually narrow; prose visually distinguishable from poetry

codex: c2-c4, replaces bookroll

papyrus: two-layer sheets made from papyrus pith; sheets not sold separately but glued left-right into rolls; much care given in putting together highest quality, which was often used for bookrolls

script: scribes payment based on quality of writing, written in "bookhand" with mostly separated letters for greater legibility; trained and apprenticed scribes; laid out scriptio continua (no spaces between words); rules for division of words on lines strictly observed; iota adscript used; scriptio plena (unelided Greek delta epsilon before a vowel) often written, even when not spoken, as a way of separating words; diacritics at particular points of a sentence sometimes used indicate word breaks (262)

punctuation: less elaborated punctuation, although markings are still evident at the end of sentences and major divisions in the text

• paragraphos: horizontal line at left edge of column, marks major divisions
• dicolon: like colon; marks changes of speaker in dialogue or drama

"Little interferes, then, with the run of the text aside from the paragraphoi. For the reader, the paragraphoi naturally act as landing points for breath and mental pauses and as visual cues for returning to a passage when a reader looks up from the text." (261-2)

Maas's law: discovered by Paul Maas; bookrolls exhibit a forward tilt in the column, so that lines move slightly to the left as they go down; is a regular and deliberate feature (as we know from ruling lines) in Roman era, especially c2 and c3