ABOUT CODEX CAVERN™
We are Thomas and Jacqueline, the founders of Codex Cavern, an independent publisher in Ontario, Canada. Codex Cavern began as Jacqueline's idea, and today we build it together.
Teachers first
For many years we have both taught English, from kindergarten through high school, at college and university level, as well as to managers at major international companies like LG, GM Daweoo and Doosan. Our work has included English as a second language, English for specific and business purposes, and test preparation. Mostly we have taught adults at college and university, but we have also taught children of every age. Wherever we taught, our work was the same: helping people understand difficult texts. We learned that clear print, careful layout and good explanations can make the difference between a reader giving up and a reader understanding.
Our teaching took us around the world. Between us we have taught in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Oman, including more than ten years in the Middle East. Living among ancient lands showed us how deeply the past still shapes the places and peoples of today.
Homeschoolers too
Since 2020 we have homeschooled our children, reading aloud from the best old books we can find. Again and again we went looking for a book we 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
One of those was Sir Isaac Newton's The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended. Newton's work on ancient history fascinated us, but the copy we bought was printed so small and squeezed so tightly that it was almost impossible to read. A great mind's work, unreadable. We 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 we hope to do: keep good texts safe, and bring them back into the light.
Faith and inquiry
We are Christians, and our faith shapes how we see the world and why we care about these texts. We are also open-minded. Christians have long read Scripture and history in different ways, literal or allegorical, young earth or old, and we welcome that conversation rather than fear it. We don't publish to settle every question. We are still searching ourselves, and we want to put the old witnesses in readers' hands so they can search too.
What we do
We publish 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.
Our editions come in paperback, hardcover and ebook. Every one is restored with care: the original text is left unchanged, checked against the original, set in clean, readable type, and given new notes written by Thomas, our editor. Our print editions are 6x9 with wide margins for your own notes. Our first volumes are now in preparation.
We are a small, new press, two teachers who love old books, building one careful edition at a time.
Thomas, our editor, prepares, typesets and annotates every edition. Jacqueline founded the press, created its brand and design, proofreads every page, and runs the business.