My current book is completely absorbing, a surprising statement perhaps about a book whose subject is the early 15th century discovery of a copy of an ancient document, [amazon_link id=”0140447962″ target=”_blank” ]De Rerum Natura[/amazon_link] by Lucretius. The book is [amazon_link id=”0393064476″ target=”_blank” ]The Swerve: How the World Became Modern[/amazon_link] by Stephen Greenblatt. (There seems to be a different subtitle on some editions – I have the US one.)

I find it literally difficult not to turn the page and carry on reading. Every sentence brings something interesting or surprising or thought-provoking. Among the many enjoyable nuggets is a description of how the Roman book trade worked. There was a distinction between librari, or copyists, and scribes, scribae. The latter were free citizens who were bureaucrats or personal secretaries. The former were slaves who copied books. Booksellers had shops around the Forum. Books could be mass produced by having one slave read out the text to be copied to a whole room full of librari. Even better, there was a print-on-demand option: a customer could pitch up and request a specific copy, which the copyist would duly produce.

Greenblatt adds that authors made nothing from book sales, and copying was freely done. Wealthy patrons supported writers, an arrangement that survived, he notes, until the 18th century.

[amazon_image id=”0393064476″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Swerve: How the World Became Modern[/amazon_image]

[amazon_image id=”0140447962″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Nature of Things (Penguin Classics)[/amazon_image]