The book of Prof. Dr. Muhammad ʿAbd al-ʿAziz Marzouk, The Noble Qur’an: A Historical and Artistic Study, is unique in its distinctive description of the external appearance of the noble Qur’an — the “Safini” Qur’an (named after the ship, safina, because it is close in shape to the general form of a ship); in art-history books it is described as having the “Italian format.”
As for the upright (vertical) Qur’an, it is described in art-history books as having the “French format.”
This [vertical] form is the one that was familiar in books before Islam and after it, and it is also the form still common in books to this day.
