Readers and books: about reading in Latin Antiquity

Abstract

In this work we aim to analyse which competencies the reader of books had to develop between the I B.C. and I A.C centuries, in the realm of Latin Antiquity, and how those books reached that reader. The skills that were brought into play in the act of reading had to be both of intellectual and physical nature, since it was necessary for anyone who read a roll to have developed such a technical ability at the handling of the instrument that it would not hamper the reading of itself. The answer to how the readers had access to the books is directly connected with the social circle they belonged to. In order to shed light on these two topics we will approach the actual reading practices that are depicted by different authors of the aforementioned period.