Writing, copying, and autograph manuscripts in ancient Rome

Classical Quarterly

Volumn 46, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 469-491

  McDonnell, Myles ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON   (United States)

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EID: 61049186597     PISSN: 00098388     EISSN: 14716844     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/cq/46.2.469     Document Type: Article

References (97)

1. K. Schefold, Die Wände Pompejis (Berlin, 1957), p. 168
2. The ambiguities of the portrait were discussed by P. Veyne, A History of Private Life: from Pagan Rome to Byzantium (Cambridge, MA, 1987), pp. 6-7, (a reproduction of the portrait appears on the cover of the book)
3. and by W. V. Harris, Ancient Literacy (Cambridge, MA, 1989), p. 263, n. 459, who pointed out that the woman's pose is conventional and listed six other known examples
4. N. Horsfall, 'The Uses of Literacy and the Cena Trimalchionis', G&R 36 (1989), 74-89, and 194-209, discussed the role of literacy and social pretension as presented by Petronius
5. E.g. K. Thomas, 'The Meaning of Literacy in Early Modern Europe', in G. Baumann (ed.), The Written Word (Oxford, 1986), pp. 97-131, on literate non-writers in England between 1500 and 1750
6. N. Horsfall, 'Rome without Spectacles', G&R 42 (1995), 49-56
7. cf. R. J. Starr, CJ 86 (1990-91), 337-43
8. A. K. Bowman, J. D. Thomas, Vindolanda: The Latin Writing-Tablets (London, 1983), pp. 52, 188 and 102
9. See now A. K. Bowman, 'Letters and literacy on Rome's northern frontier', in A. K. Bowman, G. Woolf (eds.), Literacy and Power in the Ancient World (Cambridge, 1994), p. 110
10. noted by M. Corbier, 'L'écriture en quête de lecteurs', in Humphrey (n. 1), p. 106
11. In a mid-third century papyrus Lollianus, who was the public grammaticus of Oxyrhynchus, seems to have written the draft of a petition in a large and formal script, but employed a smaller 'neat hand typical of the type used for commentaries' for writing a letter; see P. J. Parsons, PColIYoutie, 66. I owe these references to Raffaella Cribiore
12. The same authors argued that this document is part of the archive of Cerialis in Britannia 18 (1987), 126
13. Cf. M. B. Parkes, Scribes, Scripts and Readers (London, Rio Grande, 1991), pp. 1-18
14. Unlike modern business practice, where handwriting is normally restricted to a signature, in ancient practice it was the formulaic closing subscription that authenticated a dictated document; see Bowman in Bowman and Woolf (n. 7), p. 124
15. In addition to formulaic salutations, authenticating subscriptions were commonly in the form of the words legi and recognovi customarily signed by emperors and high officials; see O. W. Reinmuth, The Prefect of Egypt from Augustus to Diocletian (Leipzig, 1935, rep. 1963), p. 92
16. following U. Wilcken, Hermes 55 (1920), 28-9. Extra-Egyptian papyri show the same practice
17. For a recently published document with the subscription in the hand of Julius Priscus, prefect of Mesopotamia and brother of Philip the Arab, see D. Feissel, J. Gascou, 'Documents d'archives romains inédits du Moyen Euphrate (III siècle après J.-C.)', Académie des inscriptions & belles-lettres (Paris, 1989), 545-53
18. See A. K. Bowman, 'Literacy and the Roman Empire', in Humphrey (n. 1), p. 127
19. Cf. T. Kleberg, 'Commercio librario ed editoria nel mondo antico', E. Livrea (trans.), in G. Cavallo (ed.), Libri, editori e pubblico nel mondo antico (Rome, 1975), p. 46
20. Jerome echoed this sentiment; see E. Arns, La technique du livre d'après saint Jérôme (Paris, 1953), pp. 47-8
21. cf. K. Quinn, 'Poet and Audience in the Augustan Age', ANRW 2.30.1 (Berlin, New York, 1982), p. 82, n. 21, and p. 169
22. On autographs see T. Birt, Das antike Buchwesen (Berlin 1882, repr. 1959), pp. 349-50
23. L. de Coninck, Suetonius en de Archiralia (Brussels, 1983), pp. 52-7 and 216, argued that Suetonius did not consult these letters in the imperial archive
24. Horsfall, G&R 42 (1995), 50-55
25. Three of the four senators selected - M. Valerius Messalla Rufus, P. Nigidius Figulus, and Ap. Claudius Pulcher - are known literary figures; little is known about the fourth, C. Cosconius. It is important to note that these senators wrote the minutes out in full, not in shorthand. The Latin word for taking shorthand is excipere. Here Cicero uses perscribere, which means 'to write out fully'; see Gel. 10.1.7 with T. N. Winter, TAPA 100 (1969), 607-12
26. and R. J. A. Talbert, The Senate of Imperial Rome (Princeton, 1984), p. 316
27. see Th. Mommsen, Gesammelle Schriften, iii, Juristische Schriften, iii (Berlin, 1907, rep. 1965), pp. 290-313
28. with P. Willems, Le sénat de la république romaine, ii (Louvain, 1883, repr. New York, 1975), pp. 204-7, with Talbert, p. 129
29. and H. C. Teitler, Notarii and Exceptores (Amsterdam, 1985), pp. 27-34 and 38-44
30. cf. Horsfall, G&R 42 (1995), n. 23 and 24, and below, note 37
31. See N. Horsfall, Cornelius Nepos (Oxford, 1989), p. 80
32. The Ciceronian evidence was collected by A. B. Miller, Roman Etiquette of the Late Republic (Lancaster, PA, 1914), pp. 61-2
33. In imperial correspondence the writing of subscriptions, sometimes no more than a few words, occupied a considerable part of an emperor's workday; see F. Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World (Ithaca, 1977), pp. 221-2, 245-8
34. See the comment of D. R. Shackleton Bailey, Cicero's Letters to Atticus i (Cambridge, 1965), p. 393 on Att. 2.20 (SB 40).5
35. On correspondence of the imperial period in general see P. Cugusi, Exoluzione e forme dell' epistolografia Latina (Rome, 1983), pp. 265ff., on the letters of the emperors, pp. 265-70, and for the correspondence of Marcus Aurelius and Fronto, pp. 241-64
36. cf. B. W. Frier, The Rise of the Roman Jurists (Princeton, 1985), p. 207
37. Cf. Horsfall, G&R 42 (1995), n. 28 and 29
38. On upper-class women's education see Plin. Ep. 5.16
39. with A. N. Sherwin-White, The Letters of Pliny (Oxford, 1966), ad loc.
40. and S. B. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wires, and Slaves (New York, 1975), pp. 170-6
41. cf. E. Fantham, et al., Women in the Classical World (Oxford, 1994), pp. 360-7, Harris (n. 1), p. 252
42. I owe these references to Michael Peachin. In general see J. F. Gardner, Women in Roman Law and Society (Bloomington, 1991), esp. pp. 262-5
43. The evidence, especially from papyri, for non-elite women is slightly better and might allow somewhat firmer conclusions. Harris (n. 1), p. 262, pointed out that of the five sub-elite female creditors whose receipts survive in the archive of L. Caecilius Iucundus, none wrote out receipts in their own hand; of the 17 males creditors' receipts, eleven are written sua manu. On Claudia Severa see A. K. Bowman in Bowman and Woolf (n. 7), p. 124
44. and Britannia 18 (1987), 137-40
45. See R. Sommer, 'Pomponius Atticus und Ciceros Werk', Hermes 61 (1926), 389-422, esp. 403-15
46. and R. J. Starr, 'The Circulation of Literary Texts in the Roman World', CQ 37 (1987), 213-23, at 213-14
47. S. Treggiari, 'Jobs for Women', AJAH 1 (1976), 78, noted women as librariae and women a manu and amanuensis
48. On copying by slaves and freedmen booksellers see Starr, CQ 37 (1987), 219-23
49. The preponderance of references to servile copyists in the literary sources may only reflect the economic status of elite authors; less wealthy readers having gone to booksellers. Non-servile public scribes whose principal business was writing letters and other documents for illiterates is another matter. Evidence for them is slim in the west; see N. Horsfall, 'Statistics or states of mind?', in Humphrey (n. 1), p. 69
50. The text is that of M. P. J. van den Hout, M. Cornelii Frontonis Epistulae (Leipzig, 1988), p. 15
51. J. E. G. Zetzel, 'Emendavi ad Tironem', HSCP 77 (1973), 225-43
52. 3 (Oxford, 1991), pp. 30 and 250
53. O. Skutsch, The Annals of Quintus Ennius (Oxford, 1985), p. 9
54. E. Rawson, Intellectual Life in the Late Roman Republic (Baltimore, 1985), p. 44, n. 24
55. R. A. Kaster, Suetonius, De Grammaticis et Rhetoribus (Oxford, 1995), p. 111
56. cf. G. P. Goold, HSCP 74 (1970), 162
57. Zetzel's conclusions were challenged by S. Timpanaro, Per la storia della filologia virgiliana antica (Rome, 1986), esp. pp. 33ff., 54ff., 183ff., and 197-209
58. cf. L. Holford-Strevens, LCM 7 (1982), 67
59. and N. Horsfall, CR 37 (1987), 177-80
60. The passage was not discussed by W. Speyer, Die literarische Fälschung im heidnischen und christlichen Altertum (Munich, 1971)
61. Zetzel, HSCP 77 (1973), 233-9
62. Shackleton Bailey, ad Att. 19.2, doubted that such a learned man would be asked to work in a humble capacity, but see J. Christes, Sklaren und Freigelassene als Grammatiker und Philologen im Antike Rom (Wiesbaden, 1979), p. 108, n.10
63. R. A. Kaster, Guardians of Language (Berkeley, 1988), pp. 51-5
64. and for grammaticus as a term of abuse, see A. D. Booth, Florilegium 3 (1981), 1-20
65. Staberius was later the teacher of Brutus and Cassius. For Staberius, see Kaster, Suetonius, pp. 165-70
66. and W. Kroll, RE 17 (1937) 'Octavius' (67), col. 1850
67. H. Solin, Die griechischen Personennamen in Rom (Berlin, New York, 1982), p. 95
68. F. Leo, Plautinische Forschungen (Berlin, 1895), p. 29, n. 3
69. and Geschichte der römischen Literatur i (Berlin, 1913), p. 359
70. with Raster, Suetonius, pp. 73-7
71. with R. Ziegler, RE 21.1 (1951) 'Plotius' (16), cols. 598-601
72. 6 (Paris, 1965), pp. 412-13
73. and S. Treggiari, Roman Freedmen During the Late Republic (Oxford, 1969), p. 118
74. 3 (Oxford, 1960), appendix vi, pp. 154-7
75. This is not to say that Plotius's teaching was necessarily attacked by the censors because of popularis connections or that his teachings were part of a popularis program; see E. S. Gruen, Studies in Greek Culture and Roman Policy (Leiden, 1990), pp. 180-81, with n. 95
76. L. P. Kenter, M. Tullius Cicero, De Legibus: A Commentary on Book I (Amsterdam, 1972), p. 45, held that Cicero here referred to Plotius
77. Contra Kaster, Suetonius, pp. 76-7, whose argument is based on a narrow interpretation of Cicero's words, his enim scriptis etiam ipse interfui (Brut. 207). Cicero did not have high regard for the speeches of Numidicus; an attitude not shared by others
78. Cf. Cic. Brut. 135 and the opinions canvassed by H. Bardon, La littérature latine inconnue (Paris, 1952), p. 100
79. see H. M. Hornsby, A. Gellii Noctium Atticarum Liber I (Dublin, 1936), p. 92
80. A. Setaioli, SO 51 (1978), 105-20, argued cogently for 'early' publication (general access) of Cicero's letters
81. See W. C. McDermott, 'M. Cicero and M. Tiro', Historia 21 (1972), 259-86
82. On the meanings of emendare see J. E. G. Zetzel, CP 75 (1980), 38-59, esp. 41 and 56
83. and N. Horsfall, 'Two Problems of Late Imperial Literary History', Liverpool Classical Papers 3 (Liverpool, 1993), p. 321
84. Since at the time the usage would have been formed, the world of the books at Rome was in large measure a Greek world - see V. Burr, RLAC (1959), coll. 600 and Reynolds & Wilson (n. 41), p. 22 - it is possible that this use of describere was modelled on the Greek phrase
85. Note the comment of E. J. Kenney, CHCL II, p. 20, 'What Atticus did on a large scale and in a way that happens to be well documented, many others must have done to the extent that their more limited resources allowed'. Sommer (n. 36), 415, demonstrated the limited productivity of even Atticus's copyists and stressed the role of other contemporaries in the copying and distribution of Cicero's works
86. The relationship between Nepos and Cicero was examined by J. Geiger, Latomus 44 (1985), 265-70
87. Marcus was not, therefore, an amateur calligrapher such as the fourth century Furius Dionysius Filocalus, on whom see A. Cameron, 'Filocalus and Melania', CP 87 (1992), 140-4
88. or Theodosius II, whose sobriquet was, see O. Jahn, Ber. d. sächs. Ges. d. Wiss. zu Leipzig, Phil.-Hist. Klasse 3 (1851), 342-5
89. cf. A. Momigliano, Essays on Ancient and Modern Historiography (Oxford, 1977), p. 152
90. For other later examples see A. Cameron, The Greek Anthology (Oxford, 1993), pp. 130-1
91. The case involved a disputed will, but the details are obscure. It is not even certain that Fronto ever delivered the speech. For a discussion see E. Champlin, Fronto and the Antonine Age (Cambridge, MA, 1980), pp. 61-3
92. On the chronology of the letters, see Champlin, JRS 64 (1974), 136-59, esp. 141
93. For the continued importance of spontaneity see Maud W. Gleason, Making Men, Sophists and Self-Presentation in Ancient Rome (Princeton, 1995), p. 53
94. On classical Greek orators learning speeches by heart but appearing spontaneous see H. L1. Hudson-Williams, 'Political Speeches in Athens', CQ 45 (1951), 68-73
95. Quintilian referred to it in a series of practical tips (Inst. 11.2.27ff.) which were characterized as 'of a simple and technical sort' by G. Kennedy, The Art of Rhetoric in the Roman World 300 BC - AD 300 (Princeton, 1972), p. 505, who gave it no further comment
96. The technique was not commented on by H. Blum, Die antike Mnemotechnik (Hildesheim, 1969)
97. For the relationship between this passage, T. Pomponius Atticus, and Atticiana editions, see Dziazko, RE 2.2 (1896) cols. 2237-39