Public Libraries in Ancient Rome

Public Libraries and Literary
Culture in Ancient Rome

Public Libraries and Literary Culture in Ancient Rome by C. E. Boyd was published by Chicago University Press in 1915 and reprinted in the beginning of the 21st century. This slim volume is almost one hundred years old, but some parts are still quite interesting.

Clarence Eugene Boyd (1877-1956) was a classical scholar in the US. On the title page he is described as Professor of Greek at Emory College, School of Liberal Arts at Emory University.

The main text is divided into six chapters. Here is the table of contents:

I. Public Libraries in Rome

II. Equipment: Environment and Facilities

III. Contents: Books and Documents
IV. Management: Officials and Duties

V. Object: Incentives and Advantages

VI. Literary Culture of the Early Empire

At the end of the book we find a bibliography and an index. The bibliography includes a number of modern (secondary) works. For some reason Boyd does not give us the first name of the author and in most cases not even the year of publication. This is a strange method. In a bibliography you should always provide the full name of the author as well as the year of publication.

There are no illustrations, neither photos nor drawings. There are no maps, neither of Italy nor of Rome. Several Roman libraries are discussed and described in the text, but there is no floor plan of a single library. The lack of illustrations is a major flaw of this book.

In the beginning of the fourth century AD there were 28 – possibly 29 – public libraries in Rome. We know the names of nine (and the locations of seven), but very little is preserved. There are almost no visible remains of these buildings. The nine libraries are presented in chapter I.

 

In chapter II we are told what they looked like, from the outside and the inside.

In chapter III Boyd tries to discover what kind of books and what kind of documents were available in these libraries.

 

The management of the libraries is covered in chapter IV: who were responsible and what were their duties?

A librarian is known as “librarius.” The superintendent of the public libraries is known as “procurator bibliothecarum.” In some cases we know their names, for instance Hyginus and Pompeius Macer.

In chapter V Boyd discusses why the Roman authorities decided to establish public libraries in the capital and what advantages they gave the people who lived there.

 

In chapter VI the public libraries of ancient Rome are placed in context. Boyd mentions five elements: schools, bookshops, public baths, literary circles, and private libraries.

Statements in the text are documented with references to ancient (primary) sources and sometimes to modern (secondary) works. The author is very systematic and careful with the details. When giving a reference to an ancient source he usually quotes the Latin text in full. He is very good when it comes to documentation. He uses not only literary texts but also inscriptions. Sometimes the Latin text is translated into English, but not always. Therefore his book is not recommended for the reader who is unable to read the original Latin words.

As the title says, the focus is on public libraries in ancient Rome, and the author takes it so seriously that he excludes almost everything else. The historical background is mentioned, but not really covered. Three famous libraries of the ancient world are mentioned on pp. 21-22:

** The library of Assurbanipal in Nineveh

** The library of the Ptolemies in Alexandria

** The library of Eumenes II in Pergamon

The context is mentioned, but not really covered.

 

Three private libraries in Rome are mentioned on page 65:

** The library of Aemilius Paulus

** The library of Lucullus

** The library of Sulla

On the same page Boyd presents three persons, who played an important role in the literary world: Atticus, Cicero, and Varro. He also mentions bookshops and book sellers. In each case he provides very few details.

Since the focus is on the public libraries in the capital, Boyd does not say anything about libraries in Italy or the provinces of the Roman Empire. There is only one exception: the public library in Tibur (modern Tivoli) is mentioned, because it pops up in an anecdote told by Aulus Gellius. Here is how Boyd reports the story on page 30:

“Gellius was present with certain friends at this little village when the discussion arose whether water – such as they were then drinking - when condensed from snow, was healthful. One member of the company, who was a philosopher, asserted that Aristotle and many physicians had strongly condemned this variety of drinking-water. The matter, however, was settled to the satisfaction of all, when the philosopher himself procured from the library of Tibur a copy of Aristotle’s book dealing with the subject and brought it to them.”

[Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, XIX.5.]

[This anecdote is quite famous. It is also found in John Willis Clark, The Care of Books (1901) page 21, and in Lionel Casson, Libraries in the Ancient World (HC 2001, PB 2002) page 107.]

Boyd’s book is not perfect: the lack of illustrations is a major flaw. The background is mentioned but largely ignored, and the same complaint can be made with regard to the context.

On the positive side: if you want to know about the public libraries in ancient Rome, this is the place to go. The strong side is the documentation. Every statement is documented with references to the ancient sources.

It is an impressive collection of ancient sources about the public libraries in ancient Rome, and this is the reason why I think some parts of this book are still quite interesting – even though it is almost one hundred years old.

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Clarence Eugene Boyd,

Public Libraries and Literary Culture in Ancient Rome,

Chicago University Press, 1915, Forgotten Books, 2012, 77 pages

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