ards. Such treatments aid in giving modern can do most about them. The manner and and specific meanings to some of the gener­ scope of its conferences reveal recognition of alitie~ contained in C. C. Soule's early " Points the importance of proper provision for schol­ of Agreement among Librarians as to Library arly libraries. The joint deliberations of edu­ Architecture," which the editors of the pres­ cators, architects, engineers and librarians ent book quote in part on page 3· which the committee brought about, hardly In recent years it has been gratifying to can have failed to promote grasp of the issues many to realize that the difficulties surround­ entailed in library construction and collabora­ ing the adequacy of library buildings were tion in meeting them. The book now pro­ being dealt with on a broad scale. The con­ duced by the committee's editors reflects all stituting of the cooperative committee is evi­ this, while making available to a wide circle dence that the problems involved have gained another helpful guide for building planners.­ the attention of the institutional officers who Ernest ]. Reece, White Plains, N.Y.

The Books of the Ancients Illustrations in Roll and Codex: A Study of teacher of book arts in a graduate library the Origin and Method of Text Illustra­ school, your reviewer still believes that this tion. By Kurt Weitzmann. Princeton, field is an integral part of library science. Princeton University Press, 1947, viii, 219p. The term "book arts" is perhaps somewhat 56p. of plates. (Studies in Manuscript Il­ limited, since we have come to include under lumination.) $12.00. that heading a rather broad approach to the The World of Books in Classical Antiquity. study of the book. We mean by this term By H. L. Pinner. Leiden, A. W. Sijthoff, today the study of the social needs, the 1948, 64p., 14 plates. materials and processes, the artistic skills and On first sight the reason for this review schools, the personalities and organizations may not be fully apparent to all readers of which have formed and are forming the book this journal. as the physical vehicle of a particular kind These volumes are highly specialized studies of long-range communication. of a body of material that seemingly lies more The concept of "book arts" as an integral in the province of the classical scholar, arche­ part of library science is originally European. ologist and the student of the fine arts than The presence of an important body of ancient in the sphere of interest of the librarian. books and manuscripts in every major Very few members of the library profession in European library is the natural reason for America are likely to come into professional the concern of the academically trained librar­ contact with any of the original material ian with this type of material. The fact that treated in these books. Nevertheless there the first volume of Milkau's Handbook of are good reasons why the scholarly librarian Library Science (H andbuch der Bibliothek­ has every right and some obligation to know swissenschaft) is entirely devoted to the his­ these studies. tory of writing and the book is tangible mani­ Illustrations in Roll and Codex, by Dr. festation of this situation. Weitzmann, is a major contribution to our Your reviewer has had a chance to become knowledge of the physical form of the book acquainted with German postwar plans for at the turning point from classical antiquity library education. They show every sign of ~o the Christian Middle Ages. It clarifies adherence to the old scholarly ideals. They and greatly broadens our understanding of the also show a sad lack of understanding of the role of book illustration as a significant ve­ librarian's social function. The serious obli­ hicle of literature. It presents challenging, gations and the splendid opportunities of the li­ even radical pew views on the roots and the brary in a democratic community are literally evolution of the illuminated codex. It re­ unknown in postwar Germany. In these re­ writes an important chapter in the history of spects the professional librarian there has the book arts. everything to learn from his American col­ After nearly 20 years of experience as a league. Some beginning has been made by our

OCTOBER, 1949 485 military government to promote an under­ toonlike sequences were cut up-sectionalized standing of the American experiments and ex­ in the copying process. periences in this field. Now is the time for the W eitzmann now believes that there was mutual fructification of two systems which originally only one kind of picture, namely the are truly complementary. text illustration which was closely integrated Kurt Weitzmann's study is a case in with the column of writing. Evidence of con­ point. It is a basic piece of research of the tinuity from scene to scene and the actual ex­ kind that has behind it decades of study and amples of continuous picture scrolls, which are observation and that is likely to influence the indeed rather late in date, are explained by him course of investigation in its field for years to not as survivals from or reflections of proto­ come. This is its most important contribu­ types in the form of picture scrolls, but as the tion. results of a later synthesis. Every student of Christian illumination has Your reviewer must confess to a great re­ seen that behind the pictures in the early luctance to follow his arguments in this mat­ codices stands a long tradition of illumina­ ter. They seem to disregard first the fact tion in the rolls of classical Greece and that primitive writing in its pictographic stage Rome. Our knowledge of those monuments was actually a form of story telling by a sort is hased on very scanty remnants of of animated continuity, and second that the classical papyrus fragments. Beyond that papyrus roll offered a natural, easy medium the ancient papyrus illustrations were only for the eventual transfer of this form of com­ indirectly known, seen as in a mirror in the munication to the book roll. There is also effect they had had on the early codex. the consideration that in the case of the W eitzmann has now added a wealth of Homeric poems which were known by heart material to our knowledge by showing the in their entirety, the picture scroll with little reflection of those illustrated papyrus rolls or no text would fulfil a natural function as a on other simultaneous media and by coordi­ mnemotechnic device and as a pictorial primer nating this new evidence with the picture that may have been enjoyed and "read" simul­ hitherto derived from the reflections in the taneous with the hearing of the verses. There parchment codices. He presents to us a is no actual evidence of such a thing, but it is large body of Hellenistic terra cotta bowls, a possibility one cannot overlook. Weitzmann metal tablets, Roman frieze sarcophagi, and does not deny the possible existence of the other materials which all show scenes obvi­ early picture scroll, but he regards it as an ously derived from illuminated papyri. On exception rather than a normal practice. the basis of this evidence he reconstructs the There is no intention in this review to pre­ illuminated roll of classical Greece and Rome sent all the arguments for and against the in a much more tangible manner and upon new theory. That is a matter that will take a much broader basis than hitherto attempted a long time and the cooperation of many by anyone. specialists to settle. The truth may be found In so doing, W eitzmann reverses completely to lie somewhere in the middle ground, since the picture that such scholars as Wickhoff and these varying methods are not mutually ex­ Birt have developed. To put it simply, these clusive. men have assumed that there were two broad The chief merit of Weitzmann's work is classes of illustration. One was the text illus- · perhaps not the presentation of a new inter­ tration, primarily documentary in function, pretation, challenging as it may be, but the such as the mathematical diagram, the astro­ thorough assembling and the complete presen­ nomical constellation, the plant picture in the tation and interpretation of the original mon­ herbary, all of which were placed in the uments that show what classical and early column of the text. Then there was another .mediaeval text illumination looked like; also type, the method of telling a story-Homer, the discussion and critique of a large body of Virgil, the Old and the New Testament­ studies and interpretations by. archaeologists, primarily by means of a continuous picture papyrologists and paleographers. frieze, placed with or without accompanying Among these studies two were overlooked text or captions onto the papyrus roll. Upon by the author, the first one of primary im­ the transition from roll to codex these car- portance, the second worthy of consideration:

486 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES Felix Reichmann's "The Booktrade at the book reading for every student who first ap­ Time of the Roman Empire," in the Library proaches the field and for every expert who Quarterly, January 1938, and Henry Arthus wants to review the entire picture of the pro­ Sanders' "The Beginning of the Modern duction and distribution of the literature of Book; the Codex of the Classical Era," in the ancients. the Quarterly Review of the Michigan Alum­ The author's method is quickly explained. nus, Winter 1938. He bases his account on the primary sources, Another omission to be regretted is the dis­ the ancient fragments as they have survived, regard of an important theory in the develop­ and particularly on the references to the world ment of the roll, namely the change from the of books in the writings of classical authors. large, continuous scroll of the pre-Hellenistic These citations are carefully documented in period to the short roll of Alexandria, to which a separate section at the back. There is no we owe the division of the Homeric poem into reference to any modern studies of the sub­ "Books," if the Greek paleographers have read ject and there is also some evidence that these the evidence correctly. Such a change would have not been too carefully consulted. It have had vital repercussions in the matter of seems to me doubtful whether anyone could illustration. Also one sensed that here and build up a coherent, reasonably complete pic­ there was a lack of understanding for the in­ ture of the world of ancient books without trinsically graphic nature of the pen drawing consulting the studies of Birt, Sir E. M. as a favored technique of the illustrator. Thompson, Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, Schubart, The binding which is common to the entire Wattenbach and the many other authorities series, is unnecessarily drab for the subject it in the field, and I am sure Mr. Pinner knows embraces. The reproductions, too, lack clar­ their work. The decision, which I assume ity and spark in many instances. That could was deliberate, to concentrate only on the evi­ hardly have been avoided, since many of the dence of the ancient world and to disregard pictures are reproductions of reproductions modern attempts at their interpretation, was originally of mediocre quality. One would a bold one. The beneficial result in this book have liked to see the use of fresh photographs is its refreshing simplicity, its absence of con­ for many of the objects, but that was ob­ troversial matter, the feeling of closeness to viously impossible, considering the troubled the far-gone world of ancient books. Never­ postwar conditions and the need for a very theless, a certain price had to be paid for large body of pictorial material which is these advantages. For one thing, the picture excellently selected and arranged. is not absolutely complete. Not every possi­ The interest and the merits of H. L. Pin­ ble evidence is included; not every possibility ner's The World of Books in Classical An­ explored. One could cite several instances tiquity are found in a very different direction. where more could have been said, particularly This is not an attempt to present in its en­ on the question of physical characteristics, on tirety the body of information and specula­ the predecessors of the short roll of Alex­ tions about one particular aspect of the book andria; on the parchment codex as a cheaper in ancient Greece and Rome, but a survey of substitute for the papyrus roll. At one point the entire field. The book immediately at­ the term "palimpsest" is used in such a pe­ tracts attention for its beautiful and dignified culiar manner that one begins to wonder if printing and the simple, unassuming language the author really knows exactly what it desig­ of the author. He has divided his material nates. Also, the body of secondary evidence, into a few well-organized chapters on the dis­ which has permitted much fruitful specula­ coveries of ancient books, physical character­ tion, has not been considered. istics, the book trades of Greece and Rome, To sum up the impression that one gets bookshops in both these cultures, and a chap­ from the reading of the volume: An excellent ter on ancient libraries-both private and first introduction and a good panorama of the public. entire territory, but not a final, fully authori­ Of all these matters the reader gets a brief tative and exhaustive presentation.-H ellmut but substantial view. There is no question Lehmann-Haupt, School of Library Service, that the little volume will make excellent text- Columbia University.

OCTOBER, 1949 487