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11/4 Joseph Howley (Columbia): "Enslaved labor and the ancient Roman book"

Monday, 4 November 2019 - 5:15  PM
Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Class of 1978 Pavilion (6th Floor)

In ancient Rome, every stage of what Robert Darnton (1982) called the “communications circuit” of books was facilitated by enslaved labor. Enslaved workers aided with the composition and revision of literary works, copied and produced new editions, and facilitated reading. This talk will argue that any history of the ancient Roman book must take this enslavement into account as central not only to book culture but to the definition of the book in antiquity, as both technology and practice. It will chart the dimensions and origins of Roman book slavery, and consider the unique challenge of the librarius, a term whose meanings run the gamut from “enslaved secretary” to “bookseller.” In order to move on from questions of scrolls and codices, and silent or aural reading, this talk will show, book historians and classicists must confront the central roles of domination and human exploitation in the life of the Roman book.