![]() The first task for any Roman book collector was to assemble a collection. And it is often unclear who had access to them, but we should probably not imagine masses of people checking out freely accessible books from these libraries. They were frequently located in temple complexes. Even the largest libraries were typically funded by private means, such as patronage or endowments. Instead, he sets out to examine the specific evidence for funding, context, and access for each attested book collection. “private,” because “public” tends to connote to modern readers ideas of public funding, secular contexts, universal access, and borrowing rights, none of which necessarily applies to ancient Roman libraries. Houston avoids using the terms “public” vs. Houston is to be commended for bringing ancient Roman libraries alive in all their diversity to modern readers, and all those who study ancient literature will be much enriched with a greater appreciation of the realia of ancient book culture. Well-written in understandable prose, the book prepares readers to imagine themselves walking in the shoes of ancient scholars and using a wide variety of different types of Roman book collections. Houston’s aim throughout is to inform our imaginations not with an idealized or typical Roman library, but a range of possibilities indicated by the sources. With a broad three-pronged assault, he synthesizes documentary, literary, and archaeological evidence to pry open the secrets of Roman libraries from the first century BCE to the fourth century CE, and in so doing produces a handy reference work and provides a great service to contemporary readers. Like Cicero, Houston has put in a lot of effort, but he has accomplished something truly significant - a comprehensive survey of the evidence for ancient Roman book collections. Houston sets out to understand ancient Roman scholars in their own historical and material contexts. In his 2014 book Inside Roman Libraries: Book Collections and Their Management in Antiquity, George W. There is a certain timelessness to the worries of the learned, but just how different are we really from our ancient predecessors? Building up and maintaining a library is arduous and expensive, and yet love compels us to accumulate beyond our means and our ability to read all the books we acquire. With exorbitant book prices, limited storage space, and the proliferation of junk in written form, the bibliophiles among us can easily empathize with his plight. In the fall of 54 BCE, Cicero wrote to his brother Quintus, “After a lot of effort I have accomplished nothing…” He was speaking about the difficulty of assembling a good collection of books, which he found particularly challenging. Houston, Inside Roman Libraries: Book Collections and Their Management in Antiquity, University of North Carolina Press, 2014, 327pp., $59.95 Houston’s Inside Roman Libraries George W. ![]()
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