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Techniques of reading and textual layout in ancient Greek texts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

Luigi Battezzato
Luigi Battezzato*
Affiliation:
Università del Piemonte Orientale, Vercelli
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Extract

διπλῶς όϱῶσιν οί μαθόντες γϱάμματα

Menandri Sententiae, number 180 in Pernigotti (2008) 234.

This proverb, attributed to Menander in a Byzantine collection, points to the simple paradox of reading: readers are able to see both the shape of letters and the meaning conveyed by them. How does mind get from visual recognition to the recognition of meaning? The step sounds incredibly simple when we make it, but becomes exceedingly complex to explain. Strangely enough, the step is not executed in the same way for all languages and scripts.

The ability to recognise shapes must be assisted by the interpreting activity of specific parts of the brain. A famous nineteenth-century medical case tells the story of a ‘French Businessman and amateur musician who woke up one day to discover that he could barely read a word’; as a consequence of a stroke, he could ‘no longer read words, name colours, or read musical notes, despite having completely intact vision’ (Wolf (2008) 171). Vision is thus a necessary but not sufficient requisite for reading.

Different systems of writing make use of different parts of the brain. Another case tells us yet again about a businessman ‘proficient in Chinese and English’ who ‘suffered a severe stroke in the posterior areas. What was amazing to all at the time was that this patient, who had lost his ability to read Chinese, could still read English’. In fact, people reading alphabetic scripts use some specific parts of the brain, whereas others are active when people read logographic script. In the Japanese writing system, two syllabaries (Katakana; Hiragana) as well as a large set of ideographic characters (Kanji) are used side by side, activating different parts of the brain when each of the types of characters (syllabary or ideographic signs) occurs.

The present paper explores two main areas: the cognitive implication of the lack of spaces between words in ancient Greek script; the length of the line in prose texts, in musical texts, and in lyric texts (colometry). I will offer a short presentation of some basic concepts about the cognitive aspects of reading (section I), before discussing the textual layout of papyri (sections 2–7).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Cambridge Classical Journal , Volume 55 , 2009 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 2009

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