Y M u a n Rea din R i f i the Ab f r f rr o ng g , el e n bey o G otta e a ta See page 1 3 T H E W O R L D O F B O O K S I N C L A S S I A N T I Q U I H . L P I N N E R A . I W. S ] T H O F F L E I D E N M C M X L V I I I F m s r I M P R E S S I O N : D E C E M B E R 1 948 S E C O N D I M P R E S S I O N : S E P T E M B E R 1 949 N E N N . D S I R S T A L Y U W I LL . a m o d e s t t ok e n o f e s t e e m a n d gr a ti t u d e A C K N O W L E D G M E N T I cannot all ow this book to go to press without acknowledging r. F F r. my indebtedness to M reddy reund and M Louis A . de Pinna for their valuable assistance and to the Ashmolean Museum in x l n he ma e al the e c n O ford for supp yi g t t ri for r produ tio s . C O N T E N T S L I T E R A RY E V ID E N C E A N D PA PY RUS D I S C O V A N D A C S CR O LLS P R C H M E N T O D I C E S . T H E G R E E K B O O K T R A D E R O M A N P U B LIS H E RS B O O KS H O PS I N A T H E NS A N D R O M E L B N D B AN CI E N T I R A RI E S A I B LI O P H I L ES . S O U R C E R E F E R E N C ES L I S T O F I L L US T R A T I O N S Y A R AD OUNG M N E ING , Relief in the Abbey of Grottaferrata Frontispiece B R L A OOK OLLS IN A IBR RY , - - SO called Neumagen Relief. GI R A BA RL E DING ON A LCONY , Mural Painting from Pompeii OPENED BOOK ROLL S L OF W A AND B R L TILL IFE RITING MATERI LS OOK OL S , Mural Painting from Herculaneum R W MA EADING O N , Mural Painting f rom Pompeii MA C m e R . O N OUPLE , Po p ii THE R F CASTOR TEMPLE IN OMAN ORUM . OF R me PORTICUS OCTAVIA , o V A L A R me ATIC N IBR RY , o L Fa a e Rec n c n IBRARY IN EPHESUS , c d ( o stru tio ) BA U A THE F M SILICA LPI IN TRA!AN ORU , Exterior (Reconstruction) B L A U R me e en S a e ASI IC LPIA , o (Pr s t t t ) BA n e ec n c n O e 55 U R . SILICA LPIA , I t rior ( o stru tio ) pp osit WE R E I T N O T F O R B O O K S H U M A N C U L T U R E WO U L D P A S S I N T O O B L I V I O N A S Q U I C K L Y A S M A N H I M S E L F A T I T P L I N Y , N U R A L H S O R Y X I I I . L I T E R A R Y E V I D E N C E A N D P A P Y R U S D I S C O V E R I E S NO Greek or Roman author has left behind a com plete account Ofthe production and distribution Ofbooks in ancient times . Only occasional scraps Of information are found scattered here and there over the whole field Of classical literature . These are augmented by remarks in the writings o f the Fathers of the Church and of some Of their successors in the early Middle Ages . It is Often difficult to understand these casual indications for the reason that they assume as common knowledge just those Obscurities which we are trying to probe . Aristo P X phanes , lato and enophon could not have guessed that their works would be used to reconstruct the organ isa i n - t o m . N Of the book trade in their ti e or could Cicero , Horace or Martial . Thus we have a mosaic pieced together out Ofthe most out varied fragments , and incomplete at that , with both lines and detail Often uncertain and disturbing gaps For examining the construction and appearance Of 9 LI T ER A RY EVID ENCE AN D P A PY RUS DISCOV ERIES n ancient books , we are not confi ed to the few relevant t passages in litera ure . Their appearance is preserved not Of S only in a great many works art , such as tatues , reliefs , al Of vases and mur s , but also in thousands original ll f a O or . copies , course more less damaged These are the - o f so called Papyrus discoveries . Most them belong to the sphere of Greek culture and they far outweigh the meagre literary indications , which throw specially little n in f light o books the time o the Greeks . In the year 1 752 a library was excavated in the villa of the Pison es in Herculan eum which with Pompeii was f 7 A D . buried in the great eruption O Mt . Vesuvius in 9 In the course Of time some charred scrolls were s N l di covered there . Most Of them are now in the ationa Library in Naples . Ofthe rest a few have found their way into the Bodleian Library in Oxford . Some of these Of ffi suc charred cylinders have been , in spite di culties , cessfully unrolled and made readable . Among them are Copies which can be taken as typical examples Of the classical book . Papyri had been found from time to time in Egypt on e previous occasions , but the last fifty years have s en a Of real ! ood Of them . Amongst them are the remains many books which were in favour with the Gree k popu P Graeco lation at the time of the tolemies , and the Roman population during the Roman Empire . This represents a period from the beginning Of the third cen 1 0 LIT ERARY EVIDENCE AN D P APY RUS DISCO VERI ES B C . al tury to the decline Of classic antiquity . These treasures , most Ofwhich are now in the British Museum , for had lain buried under desert sand thousands ofyears . Some came to light where they had been thrown as rubbish in baskets on to the refuse- heaps outside the towns , some had been used for wrapping up corpses , and Others had been put into graves in accordance with an age- Old custom Of burying the dead together with their o f favourite book . By no means all these Egyptian papyri , even when their contents are literary , are books made for sale to the public . Many can be recognized as privately made copies . 1 1 S C R O L L S A N D P A R C H M E N T C O D I C E S The raw material of the classical book was the Papyrus E . P roll , imported from gypt In ancient times the apyrus reed grew almost solely in Egypt—whence it has now on completely disappeared . The Arabs their voyage o f s t conque t first in roduced it into Sicily , where its graceful ’ reed still arrests the traveller s eye near Syracuse . The use of Papyrus as writing-material is a very early Egyptian discovery which classical antiquity had to bor to row record its thoughts and intellectual achievements , as it borrowed so many other things from the culture of N the land of the ile . The manufacture o f scroll from reed is described in ‘ ’ l P E N al detai by liny the lder in his atur History , which may be likened to an encyclopaedia . The process is com an d f u plicated di fic lt , and for this reason papyrus was dear in ancient times , far dearer than good paper today . The papyrus industry was o f considerable importance in In o f the export trade o f Egypt . the time the Roman Empire it seems to have been an imperial monopoly . A 1 2 S CRO LLS AN D PARCH M EN T CO DICES receipt for the delivery o f the stamps required by law was Tebtunis found among the Papyri . It is recorded that the Emperor Pirmus (third century A D .