ΨΥΧΗΣ ΦΑΡΜΑΚΑ ΚΑΙ ΨΥΧΗΣ ΙΑΤΡΕΙΑ: ΒΙΒΛΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΒΙΒΛΙΟΘΗΚΕΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΟΡΩΜΑΪΚΗ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΤΗΤΑ

Abstract

Despina Iosif, Healing the Soul: Books and Libraries in the Graeco­Ro­man World

Most of the research on books in antiquity is traditionally based on the works of Oratius, Cicero, Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger and Martialis. And it neglects two second century AD sources, Galen's De indolentia and Aulus Gellius' Noctes atticae, which can prove to be exceptionally invaluable for understanding the production, circulation and storage of books, the formation of private book collections, the age of books, the operation of bookshops, the marketing methods book publishers and book sellers employed, the prices books fetched, the predominant reading techniques, the practice of recitatio, i.e. the oral presentation of a work before its official circulation to a wider audience/public, and the different functions of books in the Graeco­Roman world.

Galen (129­ca 200), the eminent physician of emperor Marcus Au- relius and probably the most prolific ancient author, wrote the recently found De indolentia in 193 AD, right after the fire that destroyed Rome and his private warehouses (in downtown Rome, in Via Sacra, very close to bookstores and public temple and bath libraries) where Galen kept an impressive and rare collection of books composed by him and other authors. The aim of his work was to prove that Galen, contrary to his contemporaries' expectations, was totally untouched by the loss, as others ought to be in similar circumstances.

Not much is known about Galen's contemporary Aulus Gellius, per- haps most noteworthy is that he served for a while as judex and he was a friend of Herodes Atticus. Aulus Gellius composed Noctes Atticae as a light entertaining read for the educated upper classes. He gathered bits of information on various subjects, from different authors or ones that circulated orally, information that his audience could memorize and employ in a social gathering as proof of their extensive knowledge and reading. It seems as if social gatherings which functioned as a stage to exhibit one's wide knowledge, solid education and oral skills were very frequent among the upper classes of the Mediterranean at the time.

These two sources show, among other things, that books were easily –and to modern eyes shockingly– tampered with, and ancient authors were sometimes fully aware and had actually come to terms with the fact that they had limited, if any, control over the integrity of their works and over the protection of their ideas; that books often operated as subsidium memoriae (memory aids) in the predominately oral Grae- co­Roman societies; and that books were incredibly common –by modern standards again– in upper class gatherings and they functioned as a medium to attract attention and to impress.