LIBRARIES IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
Lionel Casson, LIBRARIES IN THE ANCIENT WORLDThis, according to the author (Travel in the Ancient World ; etc.), "is the first full-scale study of libraries in the ancient world." This alone will make the book very attractive to a readership well beyond those with professional interests in the ancient world. And yet the book's title sells its contents short since it is really about a great deal more than the curatorship of the written word through its very specialized beginnings in the Near East c. 3000 B. C. until the collapse of cities in the Western Roman world. Casson's book is not limited to where and when important libraries existed; it offers a social history transcending the idea of a library as we know it. Casson discusses literacy in the ancient world; the techniques of production and the materials from which books were made (clay tablets in the oldest repositories in the Near East; papyrus and parchment in the West); trade in books; the centrality of libraries as the predecessors of modern universities and research institutions; the organization of Greco-Roman libraries, which continues, necessarily modified, in today's libraries; the differences and intersections among royal, private and public libraries; the kinds of books favored by libraries and even observations on the concept of the rare book in antiquity. Detailed consideration of the architectural elements of ancient libraries (what did these libraries look like? Where and how were books stored? How were reading rooms arranged?) makes the book as appealing to the archeologist as the bibliophile. (Apr.)
closeDetailsReviewed on: 04/02/2001
Genre: Nonfiction
Paperback - 192 pages - 978-0-300-09721-4
This, according to the author (
Reviewed on: 04/02/2001
Genre: Nonfiction
Paperback - 192 pages - 978-0-300-09721-4
