« Le rossignol et l'hirondelle ». Lire et écrire à Byzance, en Occident

摘要

"The nightingale and the swallow". Reading and writing in Byzantium and in the Latin West. Investigating reading habits in Byzantinium reveals how strongly ancient Greek and Roman practices persisted. As a norm, books were read aloud; copying and reading books were two completely different matters in as much as one was considered a mere forme of paid manual labour and the other a true activity of the intellect. Reading was mostly a private affair, belonging to the intimacy of one's home although the existence of "reading club", where literary works were first introduced and read is well testified. A "monastic " way of reading, instead, was lacking as monks were not great readers and usually limited themselves to the Psalter. Early Occidental Middle Ages presents a panorama deeply different: reading usually is silent or whispered. A comparison betweeen the Greek attitude to reading and that common in the Latin West during the first centuries of the Middle Ages shows many differences. In the West, silent reading prevailed; lay people generally were not accustomed to read at home: books were normally read in religious houses, in bishoprics and monasteries; copying coincided with reading as the act of writing had its goal in Christian education. The great differences existing in the reading habits of the Eastern and Western worlds can be ascribed to anthropological, historical, cultural as well as practical reasons.