ABOUT CODEX CAVERN™

I'm Jacqueline, the founder of Codex Cavern, an independent publisher in Ontario, Canada.

Teacher first

For many years I taught English across Africa, Asia and the Middle East — from kindergarten through high school, at college and university level, and to managers at international companies like LG, GM Daewoo and Doosan. My work has included English as a second language, English for specific and business purposes, and test preparation. Mostly I have taught adults at college and university, but I have also taught children of every age. Wherever I taught, the work was the same: helping people understand difficult texts. I learned that clear print, careful layout and good explanations can make the difference between a reader giving up and a reader understanding.

Homeschooler too

Since 2020 I have homeschooled my children, reading aloud from the best old books I can find. Again and again I went looking for a book I wanted and either came up empty, or found only cramped, tiny-print editions and blurry scans that were hard on the eyes and hard to enjoy.

The book that started it

For my own reading, I ordered Sir Isaac Newton's The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended. Newton's work on ancient history fascinated me, but the copy that arrived was printed so small and squeezed so tightly that it was almost impossible to read. A great mind's work, unreadable. I knew there had to be a better way to bring old books back.

Why "Codex Cavern"

A codex is the bound book, the form in which ancient and sacred texts were copied and handed down through the centuries. The cavern recalls the caves near the Dead Sea, where scrolls were hidden in clay jars and waited nearly two thousand years to be found. Together they describe what I hope to do: keep good texts safe, and bring them back into the light.

Faith and inquiry

I am a Christian, and my faith shapes how I see the world and why I care about these texts. I am also open-minded. Christians have long read Scripture and history in different ways, literal or allegorical, young earth or old, and I welcome that conversation rather than fear it. I don't publish to settle every question. I am still searching myself, and I want to put the old witnesses in readers' hands so they can search too.

What we do

Codex Cavern publishes two kinds of books:

• Annotated editions of public-domain historic texts for readers of ancient history and the Bible.

• Living books for Charlotte Mason and classical homeschool families.

Each edition is restored with care: the original text is left unchanged, checked against the source, set in clean, readable type, and given new notes. Print editions will be 6x9 with wide margins for your own notes, with paperback, hardcover and ebook planned. Our first volumes are now in preparation.

The bookplates came about the same way. I wanted a beautiful Ex Libris bookplate to mark the books in our own library, but could find nothing on Amazon that I liked. So I designed my own, and Codex Cavern now prints a collection of engraving-style Ex Libris bookplates.

A small, new press, building one careful edition at a time. I choose every book in our series, gather the research behind each edition, and created the brand, design and bookplate collections. My husband, Thomas, contributes historical research and annotations to our editions.