A manuscript is not only the privileged vehicle for the transmission of ancient and medieval culture: it is also a dynamic cultural artefact, in which the immaterial intellectual dimension interacts with the materiality of the object, in various and complex ways.

Awareness of the complexity of the manuscript has grown in recent decades, resulting in the development of methods and tools aimed at investigating its materials, structures and layout, along with its written and visual contents. The goal of this holistic approach is to reconstruct, as far as possible, the entire “life cycle” of a book (involving changes in its original structure, changes of ownership and changes of use), the contexts and dynamics of its production and circulation, the general manufacturing principles and the peculiarities of the different book cultures.