legens tacite
Ed Cryer
4th century AD. The person was Ambrose, bishop of Milan, the recorder St
Augustine of Hippo.
sed cum legebat, oculi ducebantur per paginas et cor intellectum
rimabatur, vox autem et lingua quiescebant. saepe cum adessemus (non
enim vetabatur quisquam ingredi aut ei venientem nuntiari mos erat), sic
eum legentem vidimus tacite et aliter numquam,
(St Augustine; Confessions)
When he read his eyes scanned the page and his heart sought out the
meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still. Anyone could
approach him freely and guests were not commonly announced, so that
often, when we came to visit him, we found him reading like this in
silence, for he never read aloud.
Ed
Ed Cryer
"Ed Cryer" <e...@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote in message
news:gnom8l$s4r$1...@aioe.org...
> This is the first recorded account of someone reading silently; in the
> 4th century AD. The person was Ambrose, bishop of Milan, the recorder
> St Augustine of Hippo.
>
> sed cum legebat, oculi ducebantur per paginas et cor intellectum
> rimabatur, vox autem et lingua quiescebant.
Augustine's attempted explanations of this behaviour are interesting and
speak volumes.
1. He was seeking quiet from the din of the world.
2. Someone might overhear some obscure point and ask him for an
explanation.
3. His voice was weak and he wanted to protect it.
sedentesque in diuturno silentio (quis enim tam intento esse oneri
auderet?) discedebamus et coniectabamus eum parvo ipso tempore quod
reparandae menti suae nanciscebatur, feriatum ab strepitu causarum
alienarum, nolle in aliud avocari et cavere fortasse ne, auditore
suspenso et intento, si qua obscurius posuisset ille quem legeret, etiam
exponere esset necesse aut de aliquibus difficilioribus dissertare
quaestionibus, atque huic operi temporibus impensis minus quam vellet
voluminum evolveret, quamquam et causa servandae vocis, quae illi
facillime obtundebatur, poterat esse iustior tacite legendi. quolibet
tamen animo id ageret, bono utique ille vir agebat.
6.3.4
David Rodericius
The ability to read silently is a skill we take for granted today, but
it was notable enough in his time for Augustine to comment on it. It
must've been like the ability to sight read music today.
Rod.
Ed Cryer
"David Rodericius" <ado...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:0f9e7fd4-14b8-40f6...@w35g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
Rod.
*************
I have the greatest respect for St Augustine. I particularly like his
own respect for bishop Ambrose; "quolibet tamen animo id ageret, bono
utique ille vir agebat".
There's something here, though, that bothers me a lot. This silent
reading was novel. So how did an ancient library sound? Like a hive of
bees a-humming and buzzing?
Or what about people reading signs on walls? Or carvings on pediments
and frontispieces? Did they mouth them?
Ed
Dann McNulty
> "David Rodericius" <ador...@gmail.com> wrote in message
My guess would be along the lines of my first grade memories. Quietly
mumbling the words to yourself as you read. I do find it quite odd
that the ancients did not develop the ability to read without
speaking.
Dann
Ed Cryer
"Dann McNulty" <Dann.M...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:34570ca0-fb6c-4aaa...@v19g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
Dann
*******************
What do you make of this?
nam in Tusculano cum essem vellemque e bibliotheca pueri Luculli
quibusdam libris uti, veni in eius villam, ut eos ipse, ut solebam,
depromerem. quo cum venissem, M. Catonem, quem ibi esse nescieram, vidi
in bibliotheca sedentem multis circumfusum Stoicorum libris. erat enim,
ut scis, in eo aviditas legendi, nec satiari poterat, quippe qui ne
reprehensionem quidem vulgi inanem reformidans in ipsa curia soleret
legere saepe, dum senatus cogeretur, nihil operae rei publicae
detrahens.
(Cicero; De Finibus)
When I was at Tusculum and wanted some books from young Lucullus'
library, I went to his villa to fetch them myself as I usually did. When
I got there I saw M Cato, whom I didn't know was there, sitting in the
library surrounded by many books of Stoics. He was, as you know, a
voracious reader, and he couldn't get his fill; not only not fearing the
vain reproach of the crowd but even reading in the senate house while
the senators were gathering, without detracting from public business.
Ed
Dann McNulty
> "Dann McNulty" <Dann.McNu...@gmail.com> wrote in message
*******
Cicero does not seem to be as surprised as St Augustine was. I found
the link below to be extremely helpful in understanding this topic.
http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/LatinBackground/SilentReading.html
Dann
Ed Cryer
*******
http://community.middlebury.edu/~harris/LatinBackground/SilentReading.html
Dann
*****************
I think this is all a false myth; and it seems to ride on St Augustine's
famous statement about bishop Ambrose in "Confessions".
Well, they were different times from the great heydays of Greece, the
Hellenistic world and the great days of Rome. Augustine was the only man
who owned any books in Hippo, and it's said that whenever a boat came
into the harbour he would rush down there hoping to find an educated
passenger on it; someone to talk to rather than stay cooped up writing
all day long.
Augustine lived in an uneducated world; empire in decline.
Cicero lived amidst educated people; as did Euclid, Plato, Aristotle,
Thucydides et mult. al in the earlier times.
Silent reading depends not only on well written and punctuated texts;
it's a preferred skill of anyone who does a lot of reading.
Ed
B. T. Raven
I believe Augustine's take on the matter. But then I think that
Augustine's world was already getting a lot more like ours than
Cicero's. It' a question of the alterity of widely separated cultures,
especially those separated by deep time. Certainly there must have been
some faculty of subvocalizing even in Cicero's time and a writer-reader
could mutter snatches of text under composition or give them the full
orotund treatment after they were memorized. In fact, in 2009 A.D. the
best way to memorize speech is to repeat it over and over out loud. In
the long development of the articulation of human speech it is possible
that at one time people could not even think without verbalizing out
loud. As recently as the time of the Great Pyramids it is likely that
the vast majority of women and children didn't speak at all unless they
were willing to pay for that "right" with a beating.
Eduardus