A History of Reading in the West

by Guglielmo Cavallo (Editor), Roger Chartier (Editor)

Overview

Books and other texts have not always been read in the way that we read them today. The modern practice of reading - privately, silently, with the eyes alone - is only one way of reading which, for many centuries, existed alongside other forms. In the ancient world, in the Middle Ages and as late as the 17th century, many texts were written for the voice, and they used forms that were oriented towards the demands of oral performance. This is one of the central themes explored in this account of the changing practices of reading from the ancient world to the present day. An international team of leading historians analyses the transformations of reading methods and material over the ages, and shows that revolutions in reading generally precede revolutions of the book. They examine not only the technical innovations which change physical aspects of books and other texts, but also the changing forms of reading and the growth and transformation of the reading public.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780745630540
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	08/25/2003
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	488
Product dimensions:	6.07(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.07(d)

About the Author

Guglielmo Cavallo is professor of Greek palaeography at the University of Rome La Sapienza. Roger Chartier is directeur d'études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Table of Contents

Publisher's Note.

Introduction: Guglielmo Cavallo and Roger Chartier.

1. Archaic and Classical Greece: The Invention of Silent Reading: Jesper Svenbro.

2. Between Volumen and Codex: Reading in the Roman World: Guglielmo Cavallo.

3. Reading, Copying and Interpreting a Text in the Early Middle Ages: M. B. Parkes.

4. The Scholastic Model of Reading: Jacqueline Hamesse.

5. Reading in the Later Middle Ages: Paul Saenger.

6. Reading in the Jewish Communities of Western Europe In the Middle Ages: Robert Bonfil.

7. The Humanist as Reader: Anthony Grafton.

8. Protestant Reformations and Reading: Jean-François Gilmont.

9. Reading and the Counter-Reformation: Dominique Julia.

10. Reading Matter and 'Popular' Reading: From the Renaissance to the Seventeenth Century: Roger Chartier.

11. Was there a Reading Revolution at the End of the Eighteenth Century? Reinhard Wittman.

12. New Readers in the Nineteenth Century: Women, Children, Workers: Martyn Lyons.

13. Reading to Read: A Future for Reading: Armando Petrucci.

Notes.

Select Bibliography.

Index.

What People are Saying About This

Peter Burke

Ranging from ancient Greece to the Internet, edited by two leading scholars in this rapidly expanding field, and written by a group of specialists in a lucid and accessible style, A History of Reading in the West... will be quite indispensable for students and scholars alike.

Abby Zanger

A terrific anthology, ranging over problems in the history of reading that reappear across historical periods and geographical contexts, and written by the very top specialists of all the areas.... A very important work.

Editorial Reviews

This collection of authoritative essays on reading since the ancient Greeks marks the culmination of more than twenty years of work. [The editors] have assembled the leading scholars in the history of reading to provide a well balanced, nearly comprehensive survey of developments in the West. . . . Mandatory reading for all scholars and their students in the history of the book and its many uses.

Libraries and Culture

It is no exaggeration to say that these historians, mining sources ranging from the financial records of trade fairs to the annals of the Inquisitions, have transformed and revitalized the field of book history. . . . A landmark achievement.

San Francisco Chronicle

Its usefulness to scholars of the history of the book, reading, writing, and print cultures is immense. . . . Although a different author wrote each of its thirteen chapters, the volume enjoys a wonderful coherence, in large part attributable to the collection's excellent introduction. . . . Deserves a place in the library of any serious scholar of books, readers, or writers.

SHARP News

The viewpoints offered by the authors are rich and varied, so that the ensemble of texts forms a veritable history of reading in the West, rather than thirteen individual and specialized chapters. . . . Men and women have not always read in the same manner, even if societies from ancient Greece to the present have been societies of the written word, of the written text. A study of their reading practices, and of the textual objects they read, can, the editors of this volume believe, inform the larger transformations western society has undergone.

History of Reading News

There is no way to encapsulate here the richness of these explorations.

Los Angeles Times Book Review

Literature has not always been written in the same ways, nor has it been received or read in the same ways over the course of Western civilization. Cavallo (Greek palaeography, U. of Rome La Sapienza), Chartier (<'E>cole des Hautes <'E>tudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris) and a number of other international contributors, address themes that highlight the transformation of reading methods and materials over the ages, such as the way texts in the Middle Ages were often written with the voice in mind, as they would have been read aloud, or even sung. Articles explore the innovations in the physical evolution of the book, as well as the growth and development of a broad- based reading public. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Proves the most bracing of these books, the essays of its 13 European contributors taking us on a high-quality plunge into a new area of study: the text's endlessly changing relationship to the reader. Each of these bold attempts to retrace forgotten gestures and bygone habits of the most historically ephemeral sort is based on the premise that, as Chartier puts it, "without a reader the text is merely virtual: it has no true existence.

Los Angeles Times

"A terrific anthology, ranging over problems in the history of reading that reappear across historical periods and geographical contexts, and written by the very top specialists of all the areas. . . . A very important work."—Abby Zanger, Harvard University

"Ranging from ancient Greece to the Internet, edited by two leading scholars in this rapidly expanding field, and written by a group of specialists in a lucid and accessible style, A History of Reading in the West . . . will be quite indispensable for students and scholars alike."—Peter Burke, Emmanuel College, Cambridge

"It is no exaggeration to say that these historians...have transformed and revitalized the field of book history..."—San Francisco Chronicle

"Its usefulness to scholars of the history of the book, reading, writing, and print cultures is immense...."—SHARP News

"The viewpoints offered by the authors are rich and varied...a veritable history of reading in the West..."—History of Reading News

"There is no way to encapsulate here the richness of these explorations."—Los Angeles Times Book Review

From the Publisher