Men and Books in fourth-century BC Athens

This paper is concerned with books as “working tools” in 4th century BC Athens and aims to collect and discuss evidence for the existence of private book collections. In this period literacy seems to have improved, the book trade to have developed and books appear to have a wider variety of functions than before. The development of new genres of prose, the establishment of schools of higher education and the search by cultural and political figures for consensus are some of the reasons that may explain the rise of a new attitude towards books, their collection and their use for intellectual purposes; there was a gradual move away from the previously accepted idea of book conservation as a kind of sacred act. The way in which 4th century authors describe people reading , working with books and writing and, at the same time, the way in which their own works are built up contain interesting clues to this cultural change and to the birth of the idea of “library” in the Greek world.

Analisi delle testimonianze relative alla circolazione e conservazione dei libri e al lavoro sui libri nell'Atene del IV secolo a.C.