International Symposium "Economical Aspects of Reading in Antiquity"

The book market of the ancient Mediterranean world offers an important key for understanding the reading culture in which the production and reception of ancient texts was embedded. New findings on the costs, exchange and distribution of literary works indicate the existence of a reading population ranking below that of the top elite of Roman society. If these writings were received by a broader range of individual, social actors than previously assumend, it calls into question theses centered on the idea that certain texts  - like those associated with early Christianity - are teh product of "communities. This interdisciplary conference is dedicated to economic, socio-cultural and religious-scientific aspects of ancient reading culture, with a special focus on the imperial era and early Christianity. Literary cases studies are set in dialogue with contributions on the materiality of reading practices from a historical perspective.

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