Category Archives: Book Trade in Antiquity
Moss, God’s Ghostwriters
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
Manufacturing a Papyrus Roll
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
Buying Papyrus in Roman Antiquity
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
Buying Books in Rome circa 86 CE
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
Variant Readings 