Greek and Latin literature and the classical tradition

1. Greek and Latin literature and the classical tradition

2. Homer Iliad 6.168-170 “So he sent him to Lycia with lying letters of introduction, written on a folded tablet …”

3. Athens, 5th c. BCE: writing

4. Papyrus (modern)

5. Derveni papyrus, ca. 340 BCE • covered with protokollon – first sheet for protection • ink: carbon, gum arabic, water • pens: reeds • posture: sitting at surface • contains paragraphoi ‒ small strokes on left edge = new section of text • typical: ~12” x 12”-14” sheets, inscribed with 2” lines of prose or 4” lines of poetry

6. Library at Alexandra, ca. 300 BCE Ca. 300: Creation of the Bibliotheke(“book warehouse”) in Alexandria adjoining the Musaion (“home of the Muses) Scholars (philologoi) combine textual criticsm with scientific methods Number of scrolls: 150-500,000 • Scrolls on rods (umbelici) with sillyboi (labels), grouped in bins by genres with pinakes(title, author, birthplace, teacher, background, career) organized alphabetically; gave name to catalog (Pinakes) of Callimachus ca. 245. Genres: • rhetoric tragic poetry mathematics • law comic poetry medicine • epic poetry lyric poetry history; natural history

7. Papyri scrolls from the Villa deiPapiri, Herculaneum, first owned by Caesar’s father-in-law, LuciusCalpurniusPiso: 1,800 scrolls

8. 1st c. CE papyrus from Oxyrhynchus, Egypt: Euclid’s Elements

9. House of Terentius Nero, Pompeii, 1st c. CE

10. 2ndc. BCE: pergamenum from Pergamon: increased popularity of parchment(modern goatskin)

11. Books, booksellers and parchment (sheep/goat-skin; later, vellum or calfskin) “You who are anxious that my books should be with you everywhere, and desire to have them as companions on a long journey, buy a copy of which the parchment leaves are compressed into a small compass. Bestow book-cases upon large volumes; one hand will hold me. But that you may not be ignorant where I am to be bought, and wander in uncertainty over the whole town, you shall, under my guidance, be sure of obtaining me. Seek Secundus, the freedman of the learned Lucensis, behind the Temple of Peace and the Forum of Pallas” (Martial Epigrams 1.2)

12. (Modern) Roman wax tablets, precursor to the codex (codices, Lat. “block of wood”)

13. 2nd c. CE codices from Nag Hammadi, Egypt

14. Palimpsest (πάλιν ψάειν, palinpsaein – “to scrape again”)

15. Manuel Chrysoloras, 1355-1415 • Invited to teach in Bologna, 1397: • “The verdict of our own Cicero confirms that we Romans either made wiser innovations than theirs by ourselves or improved on what we took from them, but of course, as he himself says elsewhere with reference to his own day: “Italy is invincible in war, Greece in culture.” For our part, and we mean no offence, we firmly believe that both Greeks and Latins have always taken learning to a higher level by extending it to each other's literature.” • First teacher of Greek in Europe • Career included teaching Greek and translating Homer, Plato to Latin • Teacher of some of the great humanists – teachers, translators, scholars – of of the early Renaissance: • Leonardo Bruni, History of the Florentine People (first “modern” secular history) • Guarinoda Verona, whose students included Aldus Manutius

16. Siege of Constantinople, 1453

17. Gutenberg Bible, Johannes Gutenberg, ca. 1455 (cost: 3 years’ wages for a clerk)

18. (Modern) movable type, organized by letter of the alphabet

19. Printing press (16th c.): movable type, inking and completed sheet

20. Aldus Manutius, 1450-1515 (Aldine Press), vol. 1 of Aristotle (1495) • festinalente(“make haste slowly”) • grammarian, humanist, typographer(Greek and italic fonts) • founder of “Philhellenic Academy” • clean, unfiltered, portable texts