The Roman Book

by Rex Winsbury

Overview

The publishing of Roman books has long and often been misrepresented by false analogies with modern publishing. This comprehensive new study examines, by appeal to what Roman authors themselves tell us, both the raw materials and aesthetic criteria of the Roman book (a papyrus scroll) and the process of literary composition. What was the 'scribal art' of the time? What was the role of bookshops and libraries? What control did an author have over his creation? How were new books received and used by readers? To answer these questions Roman publishing is placed firmly in the context of a society that, despite the omnipresence of writing, was still predominantly oral. This context helps to explain how some books and authors became politically dangerous, and how the Roman book could be both a cultural icon and integral part of the self-definition of Rome's governing elite and a direct contributor to popular culture through the mass medium of the Roman theatre.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780715638293
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/26/2009
Series:	Classical Literature and Society
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Rex Winsbury has a PhD in classical studies from London University. He has worked at the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph and the BBC, and as a self-employed publisher, editor and journalist. He has also taught at City University, Imperial College, and Birkbeck College, London.

Table of Contents

Editor's Foreword ix

Preface xi

Introduction

1 Myths and anachronisms: the need for a new look at Roman Publishing 3

What was the Roman book?

2 Format wars: scroll v. codex, papyrus v. parchment, pagan v. Christian 15

3 Don't mess up the aesthetics: marching columns and rivers of letters 35

4 Did the medium shape the message? Deciphering the author's intent 45

Deconstructing the Roman book trade

5 Atticus and Co. -Roman publishers? 53

6 Bookshops and copyshops: a trip to Rome's Argiletum and Sigillaria 57

7 Books for looks: the library shelves as imperial patronage 67

What the Latin tells us

8 Slavery as the enabling infrastructure of Roman literature 79

9 Getting into circulation: from private space to public space 86

Texts in an oral/aural society

10 Effecte! Graviter! Cito! Nequiture! Euge! Beate!: the recitatio as act of publication 95

11 Literature of the voice: 'toss me a coin and I'll tell you a golden story' 111

The perils of publishing

12 The battle for survival: mice and worms, plagiarism and posterity 129

13 Bookburning and treason: 'a time of savagery even in peace' 135

Gluing it all together

14 Scripts for all classes: the theatre of Rome, Rome as theatre 147

15 A unitary culture: elite self-definition and Romanitas for all 162

Appendix A Roman shorthand: a note on Tiro 175

Appendix B Poetic postures: toto notus in orbe? 178

Notes 181

Bibliography 223

Index 230