Readings by self-important and vain individuals in Rome and other parts of the Empire became a target for sarcastic humour. Seneca looked on these vulgar performances of literary conceit with contempt, and he wasn’t alone. This period saw the emergence of the recitatio: public literary readings conducted by authors and poets that many wealthy citizens regarded as an opportunity for self-promotion. Seneca’s hostility towards the ostentatious book collector was probably influenced by his aversion towards the public reading ‘mania’ that appeared to afflict the early Roman Empire. Of the flamboyant collector of scrolls, he wrote that ‘you can see the complete works of orators and historians on shelves up to the ceiling, because like bathrooms, a library has become an essential ornament of a rich house’. The Roman philosopher Seneca, who lived in the first century, directed his sarcasm at the fetish for grandiose display of texts, complaining that ‘many people without a school education use books not as tools for study but as decorations for the dining room’. In Roman times, starting in the second century BCE, books were brought down from heaven to earth, where they served as luxury goods that endowed their wealthy owners with cultural prestige. Josiah used the scrolls written by his ‘deuteronomists’ to solidify a covenant between the Jewish people and God – and, in an inspired act of political strategy, to legitimise his legacy and claim to the land. In the seventh century BCE, when the Old Testament’s book of Deuteronomy was written under the sponsorship of King Josiah in Jerusalem, the high bar was set for veneration of the book. Through limiting access to their magical knowledge, ambitious scribes protected their cultural authority as readers jealously. It is at this point in time that we have one of the earliest hints of the symbolic power and privilege enjoyed by the reader. In ancient Mesopotamia, where only a small group of scribes could decipher the cuneiform tablets, the interpreter of signs enjoyed tremendous prestige. Reading has always been a marker of character, which is why people throughout history have invested considerable cultural and emotional resources in cultivating identities as lovers of books. Since text possesses so much symbolic significance, how people read and what they read is widely perceived as an important feature of their identity. Egyptian hieroglyphics were thought to possess magical powers and, to this day, many readers regard books as a medium for gaining a spiritual experience. The ability to decipher and interpret the symbols and signs was seen as an extraordinary accomplishment. The clay tablets on which marks and signs were inscribed were regarded as precious and sometimes sacred artefacts. Since the invention of the cuneiform system of writing in Mesopotamia around 3500 BCE and of hieroglyphics in Egypt around 3150 BCE, the serious reader of texts has enjoyed cultural acclamation. That is why, often when I do a television interview at home or in my university office, I am asked to stand in front of my bookshelf and pretend to be reading one of the texts. And, though we are meant to be living in a digital age, the symbolic significance of the book continues to enjoy cultural valuation. Since this exchange, I am reminded time and again that, as symbols of cultural refinement, books really matter. An assistant informs me that these fine specimens help to ‘embellish your book collection’. I look closer and realise that these books are part of what’s called the Leatherbound Classic series. I am book-browsing at Barnes and Noble on Fifth Avenue in New York City when my attention is caught by a collection of beautifully produced volumes.
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