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Rome Without Spectacles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2009

Nicholas Horsfall
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Extract

This is not a paper about Christianity and the decline of theatre and amphitheatre: perhaps, like another transported Englishman, W. V. Harris, I should have learned to say ‘eye-glasses’, but, as it is, I would like to examine some of the problems that surround reading and writing at Rome. In a recent paper, R. J. Starr offers a useful survey of the material on lectores, 2 a term that can mean both one who reads a text (Hor. Ep. 1.19.35), and, like anagnostes, one who reads aloud to others as his principal activity. Starr's paper suggests, passim, an author aware that his topic could well have wider implications, as it most certainly does. The history of books, reading, writing, and research in antiquity is a fascinating topic, endlessly rich and complex in its ramifications, as witness the debate on W. V. Harris's Literacy and the work of Guglielmo Cavallo.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , April 1995 , pp. 49 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1995

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References

Notes

1. Harris, W. V., Ancient Literacy (Cambridge, Mass., 1989), p. 15Google Scholar.

2. CJ 86 (1990–1), 337–43.

3. Cf. Literacy in the Roman World (JRA Suppl. 3, 1991) for eight essays in reaction to Harris.

4. Cavallo, G. in Princeps Urbium (Milano, 1991), pp. 171ffGoogle Scholar., id. in Lo spazio letterario di Roma antica 2 (Roma, 1989), pp. 307ff. (ed.), Libri, editori e pubblico nel mondo antico (Roma-Bari, 1977)Google Scholar(ed.), Le biblioteche nel mondo antico e medievale (Roma-Bari, 1988)Google Scholar, id. in (ed. P. Rossi), La Memoria del Sapere (Roma-Bari, 1988), pp. 29ff.

5. Singer, C., etc., History of Technology 3 (Oxford, 1957), pp. 229ffGoogle Scholar.

6. On Plin. Nat. 37.64, see Forbes, R. J., Studies in ancient technology v 2 (Leiden, 1966), 190Google Scholar.

7. Plin. Nat. 11.53f, Penso, G., La médecine romaine (Paris, 1984), pp. 397ffGoogle Scholar.

8. Cic. Fin. 4.65, Sen. Nat. 7.11.3,1.3.7, 8.

9. Celsus 6.32, Plin. Nat. 7.168, Juv. 10.198–9, with Mayor's note.

10. Penso, (op. cit, a 7), p. 404Google Scholar, PWs s.v. Lippitudo, 13.723ff. (Kind); Ovio, G., L'oculistka ai tempidell'impero romano (Roma, 1940)Google Scholar.

11. Vitr. 1.2.7, 6.4.1, PW s.v. Bibliotheken 421.42ff. (Dziatzko),Callmer, C., Opusc.Arch. 3 (1944), 187Google Scholar, Blanck, H., Das Buck in der Antike (München, 1992), p. 183Google Scholar.

12. Balsdon, J. P. V. D., Life and leisure in ancient Rome (London, 1969), p. 16Google Scholar.

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14. Juv. 1.51, 7.99 (with Mayor's notes), Tosi, R., Dizionario delle sentenze (Milano, 1991), pp. 19Google Scholar, 218f. (a very useful compendium).

15. PL 25.199B (In Ezech. Lib. 7, Praef).

16. Further to the bibliography collected in Literacy (op. cit, n. 3), p. 75 n. 99, cf. Kloeters, G., Buch und Schrift bei Hieronymus (diss.Münster, 1957)Google Scholar, Scheek, J., Bibliothek und Wissenschaft 12 (1978), 14–114Google Scholar.

17. Cf. my Virgilio, I'epopea in alambicco (Napoli, 1991), p. 35Google Scholar.

18. Starr, (op. cit., a 2), 340Google Scholar, Quinn, K., ANRW 2.30.1 (1982), 87Google Scholar; for dictare, cf. Quinn 86,17,167f.,Brink, on Hor, . Ep. 2.1.110Google Scholar.

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20. Hagendahl, (op. cit., n. 19, 1971), 32f.Google Scholar, Arns, E., La technique du livre d'après Saint Jérôme (Paris, 1953), pp. 47ffGoogle Scholar.

21. Jer, Comm. in Abdiam 20 f.Google Scholar, PL 25.1118A, Arns, (op. cit, n. 20), pp. 47 f.Google Scholar, Hagendahl, (op. cit, a 19, 1971), 32Google Scholar, Quinn, (op. cit, n. 18), 85Google Scholar.

22. Hagendahl, (op. cit, n. 19, 1971), 36Google Scholar.

23. Ibid., 24, Willems, P., Le sénat de la république romaine 2 (Louvain, 1883), pp. 204ffGoogle Scholar.

24. Hagendahl, (op. cit, n. 19), Defarrari, R.J., AJP 43 (1922), 97ff.Google Scholar, Teitler, H., Notarii and exceptores (Amsterdam, 1985)Google Scholar, Tengström, E., Die Protokollierung der Collatio Carthaginiensis (Göteborg, 1962)Google Scholar.

25. Cf. my note on Nep. Att. 10.4, Miller, A. B., Roman Etiquette, (diss. U. Pennsylvania, 1914), pp.61fGoogle Scholar.

26. PL 22.394, 1.142.11 Hilberg.

27. Arns, (op. cit, n. 20), pp. 42ffGoogle Scholar, Kloeters, (op. cit, n. 16), pp. 38ffGoogle Scholar. for the medical history, Arns pp. 44f., Kloeters pp. 36f. for the lamp. It is doubtful whether Jerome wrote anything manu sua except for a few letters: Hagendahl, (op. cit, n. 19, 1971), 32Google Scholar, Arns, (op. cit, n. 20), p. 39Google Scholar; cf. my note in Tria Lustra, Essays in honour of J. Pinsent (Liverpool, 1993), pp. 321fGoogle Scholar.

28. Not so long ago ‘typewriter’ was used in the sense of ‘typist’; OED cites examples from the years 1884–95.

29. Cic. Brut. 87,Quinn, (op. cit, a 18), 85Google Scholar.

30. Hagendahl, (op. cit, n. 19, 1971), 35 n. 95Google Scholar.

31. Cic. QF 3.3.1, 2.23.1.

32. Cic. Fam. 9.26.1, 14.21.4, QF 3.1.19., Att. 15.13a.1, 27.3, Drumann, W., Geschichte Roms vi 2 (Leipzig, 1929), 353ffGoogle Scholar.

33. Pers. 1.51f., Hor. Ep. 2.1.110 with Brink's note, Tac. Ann. 14.16.2.

34. Catullus 50, Petr. 55.2, with G&R 36 (1989), 79.

35. See below and G&R 36 (1989), 79, also Starr, (op. cit, n 2), 341Google Scholar.

36. Cf. Arns, (op. cit, n 20), p. 46Google Scholar, Jer. Ep. ad Fab. 64.22, Hilb. 1.615.6.

37. Cf. Cic. de Orat. 1.136, Sherwin-White on Ep. 3.5.15, Starr, (op. cit, a 2), 339Google Scholar.

38. Skydsgaard, J. E., Varro the Scholar (Copenhagen, 1968), pp. 102ffGoogle Scholar.

39. To n 35, add my note on Nep. Att. 14.1.

40. Starr, (op. cit, n 2), 340fGoogle Scholar, Plin. Ep. 9.20.2.

41. Starr, (op. cit, n 2), 342Google Scholar, Suet. Aug. 78.2, Plin. Ep. 3.5.10.

42. Cf. the story at Plin. Ep. 3.5.12.

43. Cf. Quint. 10.3.18ff. (highly acute), Starr, (op. cit, n 2), 337fGoogle Scholar.

44. Starr, (op. cit, n 2), 342Google Scholar, Treggiari, S.Roman Freedmen (Oxford, 1969), p. 148Google Scholar.

45. Treggiari, (op. cit, n 44), p. 149Google Scholar n. 2, citing Cic. Att. 13.23.3,12.22.2, Drumann, (op. cit, n 32), v. 69fGoogle Scholar.

46. Cf. my note on Nep. Att. 13.3, with further bibliography, also op. cit, n. 17, p. 32.

47. Skydsgaard (op. cit, a 38), passim.

48. Horsfall, (op. cit, n 17), p. 34Google Scholar, Boyd, C. E., Public libraries and literary culture (Chicago, 1915)Google Scholar. Gellius' methods unfortunately are not covered in Holford-Strevens', L. magisterial Aulus Gellius (London, 1988)Google Scholar. Arns and Kloeters have, as I have indicated, covered the material in St. Jerome very fully.

49. Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic (London, 1985), p. 44Google Scholar.

50. Champlin, E., MH 46 (1989), 118Google Scholar, Horsfall, , CR 43 (1993), 268Google Scholar.

51. Poets and Patron (North Ryde, 1981), pp.2fGoogle Scholar.

52. Millar, F., The Emperor in the Roman world (London, 1977), pp. 28ffGoogle Scholar.

53. Casson, L., Travel in the ancient world (London, 1974), pp. 188 ffGoogle Scholar.

54. Cic. QF 3.1.19 (with Shackleton Bailey ad loc).

55. André, J.-M., L'otium (Paris, 1966), pp. 289ff.Google Scholar, W.-A. Schröder's comm. on Cato, Orig. fr. 2.

56. Cf. Pliny's account of an average day in the country, Ep. 9.36.

57. Cf. Caes. Gall. 1.39.3, and see above for the composition of the de analogia.

58. Good talk after dinner (without lectores or notarit) with Prof. S. Costanza provoked me to formulate this paper.