Friday, November 30, 2018

Shopping for Books in Classical Athens

The Institute’s third lecture of this academic year will take place on Wednesday 5 December, starting at 7.30 pm in the library of the Institute (Dionysiou Aiginitou 7, ground floor, Ilisia. Metro: Megaro Mousikis). Dr. Hallie Marshall (Assistant Professor, Department of Theatre & Film, University of British Columbia) will give a talk entitled, "How to Shop for Books in late 5th-Century Athens".

“The book trade in fifth century Athens is rarely discussed, and issues of literacy in classical Athens, and indeed in later periods, generally focus on questions of what portion of the population would have been literate, education and literacy, degrees of literacy, and the place and function of writing in Athens. This paper will explore our evidence for the selling and buying of books in late fifth-century Athens and argue that, in light of that evidence, we need to reframe our conception of what a book was for Greeks of this period.”

You are all most welcome to join us next Wednesday evening for what promises to be a most interesting presentation.

Jonathan Tomlinson
Assistant Director

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