A few other notes that may be of use. >2) it was sometimes read by single readers who perhaps performed or uttered >it in a low voice?
In addition to the Knox article, there is a particularly informative examination of the question of silent reading in a pair of articles by M. Burnyeat and A. K. Gaurilov, printed in Classical Quarterly (1997) 91.1. Gaurilov cites evidence from modern linguistic and cog sci researchers; the upshot is that there is no known culture which has possessed the ability to read without at the same time being able to read silently (G. then goes on to explain why this should be so). >3) Cross-referencing was not written into it because it was not easy to >skip from verse to verse within a scroll, or between scrolls. Despite the profusion of allusions and 'cross-references' in ancient texts, it is important to keep in mind that no pagan author refers to another passage by specific *line numbers* (there is a single amusing exception in Diogenes Laertius 7.187-8); at most they will specify book number, along with a qualification like, "near the beginning." Commentators like Servius cite lines using lemmata. Also, it seems that the ancients did not use tables to write on, or to support their papyri when they read. If you were writing (and weren't using wax tablets), you supported the papyrus on your knee, and you read the text while holding it in the air or on your lap or knees. (One papyrus fragment we have is signed to the effect that "this text was copied by me, my right hand, and my knee.") Large, flat tables do not become a regular feature of libraries until the Renaissance, though there were small reading stands much earlier. My source for these claims is the recent book by J. P. Small, Wax Tablets of the Mind. Cognitive Studies of Memory and Literacy in Antiquity. (New York 1997) It is mostly about ancient technologies of writing, and is one of the most fascinating books on classics that I've read in the past year. Phil Thibodeau ----------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the Mantovano mailing list at any time, do NOT hit reply. Instead, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message "unsubscribe mantovano" in the body (omitting the quotation marks). You can also unsubscribe at http://virgil.org/mantovano/mantovano.htm#unsub
