Papyrus The Invention of Books in the Ancient World

A rich, wide-ranging look at the importance of books and libraries in the ancient world that highlights how humanity’s obsession with the printed word has echoed throughout the ages—from one of Spain’s most celebrated authors

Long before books were mass-produced, those hand-copied on reeds taken from the Nile were the treasures of the ancient world. Throughout the classical world, books were valued and protected. Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies of Egypt scoured the empire for books to preserve in the Great Library. The last person alive to see the scrolls of Piso’s library in Vesuvius may have been trying to rescue them from the volcano’s downpour. In Rome, the great patricians donated their fortunes to public libraries, while their wives and daughters surreptitiously hid banned books so they wouldn’t disappear. But books have also had a complex journey through history. Written texts corseted the endlessly inventive oral tradition of ancient Greece into fixed lines, but they also enabled more people than ever before to participate in literary culture. They codified oppressive ideas about women and noncitizens, but they also brought new and important perspectives. Studying the diverse and endlessly fascinating literary culture of the ancient world, award-winning author Irene Vallejo underscores just how important books were to our forebears, and how important they remain for us now.   
 
With a luminous and roving intellect, Vallejo weaves a marvelous tapestry of our culture’s foundations, and along the way identifies the profound, humanist tendencies that make us who we are today, from Herodotus’s boundless curiosity and Hypatia’s remarkable tolerance to Martial’s wry social critique. In so doing, she illuminates the connections between ancient literature and our own, and deepens our appreciation for the long, exciting, and perilous history of books. A passionate and evocate storyteller, Vallejo takes readers on a journey across the centuries to discover how a simple reed along the Nile came to uphold our rich and cherished culture.

IRENE VALLEJO earned her doctorate from the Universities of Zaragoza and Florence. Papyrus was awarded the National Essay Prize and the Critical Eye Prize for Narrative in Spain, and it will be published in thirty countries. Vallejo is a regular columnist for El País and Heraldo de Aragón, and she is the author of two novels, three collections of essays, articles, and short fiction, and two children’s books. Translated from the Spanish by Charlotte Whittle.