The Evolution of Book Circulation in Imperial Age: Legal and Christian Literature

Abstract

With the Principate legal literature gained in importance as consequence of the democratization of knowledge. An unlearned character in Petronius’ Satyricon sought to buy aliquot libra rubricata (law-texts), in order to enable his son to acquire sufficient knowledge to embark upon a profitable profession (46.7).Membranae (parchments) was the title given by Neratius Priscus (cos. suff. 97) to one of his works.During the second and third centuries legal literature expanded in line with the need to provide a frame of reference.It is remarkable that in the same time, already in the earliest centuries, Christians were heavily involved in writing, copying, reading, exchanging, and disseminating a great number of texts as it is proven in the passage from the roll to the codex with the very construction of early Christian scriptural documents so as to render them more easily accessible to sub-elite readers. By the late second century, at least in some circles, Christian identity was connected with the possession of books, and various material evidence suggest that reading practices were developed and textual communities formed, in spite of what appears to have been the relatively low educational level of the majority of Christ believers. By the fourth century, a «media revolution» was in full swing.

Keywords

• letteratura legale
• membranae
• cristianesimo
• rotolo
• codice
• «rivoluzione mediatica»