🚀 go-pugleaf

bookburn wrote:
> 
> "John W. Kennedy" <jwkenne@attglobal.net> wrote in message
> news:bg0Gb.381926$655.82315215@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net...
> > Henry Hanna wrote:
> > > A long time ago I read a book by McLuhan stating
> > > that silent reading was invented in the middle ages.
> >
> > > Was this such a difficult thing that needed to be
> > > "invented"?
> >
> > St. Augustine, one of the most brilliant and well educated men
> of his
> > time (late 4th, early 5th centuries), remarks in awe about the
> ability
> > of St. Ambrose to read silently, and spends some time trying to
> explain
> > why he thinks Ambrose might have done such an extraordinary
> thing.
> >
> > --
> > John W. Kennedy
> 
> Instead of "invented" I suppose reading silently was an easily
> learned behavior.  One step leading to accomplishment would have
> been reading lists of figures/accounts on clay tablets, like they
> had in Sumaria.  Another would have been reading pictographs
> whose idea is represented, not an element of spoken language.
> And then there was reading by candle light at night when you're
> supposed to be asleep.  bookburn

For a consideration of this topic regarding ancient Mesopotamia, see A.
Kirk Grayson's contribution to the Festschrift for W. G. Lambert,
published by Eisenbrauns a year or two ago (but presented at a meeting
in 1989).
-- 
Peter T. Daniels                       grammatim@att.net