Category Archives: Book Trade in Antiquity

A Walk in the Imperial Fora

Posted on October 20, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

For the first time since it opened, I took the walk on the new pathway through the imperial fora in Rome. From the Roman Forum you can go past the curia (where, at the moment, a portion of the Magna … Continue reading →

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Taking Care of Papyrus Scrolls in Antiquity

Posted on August 10, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

The digital edition of a new book has recently become available: The volume is the result of a workshop back in 2022 in which I was fortunate enough to participate. It was a somewhat unusual seminar in the sense that … Continue reading →

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Pumice, Parchment, and Papyrus

Posted on April 28, 2025 by Brent Nongbri

In the latest issue of the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists (2024, just out–table of contents here), I have an article on the use of pumice on papyrus (AAM here). Here is the abstract: Papyrological handbooks published in … Continue reading →

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Stichometry 2: The Edict on Maximum Prices

Posted on June 10, 2024 by Brent Nongbri

In an earlier post, I reviewed the evidence for a stichos or versus being equal (in theory) to 16 prose syllables. The count of stichoi in a work provided a standardized way of describing its length. A stichometric count could … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Trade in Antiquity, Inscriptions, Stichometry | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Moss, God’s Ghostwriters

Posted on April 28, 2024 by Brent Nongbri

Over the last few years, Candida Moss has published several very interesting articles on different aspects of slavery and early Christianity, such as: After reading these articles, I recognized that I was not going to be able to approach early … Continue reading →

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Manufacturing a Papyrus Roll

Posted on January 21, 2024 by Brent Nongbri

Over the years, I’ve had many occasions to talk about the manufacture of papyrus rolls. I typically describe them as fairly simple artifacts–several individual sheets of papyrus pasted together to form a roll. And a papyrus roll is relatively simple … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Trade in Antiquity, Papyrus Making, Voluminology | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Buying Papyrus in Roman Antiquity

Posted on January 28, 2023 by Brent Nongbri

I recently came across the reference in Theodor Birt that reminded me of an old problem. After a description of the production of papyrus sheets, Birt states that “the resulting sheets were sold individually (Die so entstandenen Blätter kamen einzeln … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Trade in Antiquity, Codices | 4 Comments

Buying Books in Rome circa 86 CE

Posted on July 1, 2021 by Brent Nongbri

The surviving writings of the satirical poet Martial provide a number of insights into Roman book culture. He has been an especially important figure in discussions of the history of the codex, as he mentions on multiple occasions portable parchment … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Trade in Antiquity, Martial | 8 Comments