Description
Book SynopsisUsing a variety of documentary, narrative and normative sources, this title explores the growth of reading audiences in a pre-print culture. It examines the accessibility and profile of libraries. It looks at popular reading practices, often associated with the notion of the illicit.
Table of Contents1. Reading and writerly culture; Literacy, orality and aurality; The written word in the Middle Period; 'Popular' practices of reading; 2. A city is reading: Popular and learned reading sessions; Methodological considerations; Reading Communities between scholarly sessions and popular sessions; The order of seating: Social and cultural differences; Motivations to participate in popular readings; Changes over time: Reading certificates and 'popular' culture; 3. Learning to read: Popularisation and the written word in children's schools; Textualisation and curricular changes; Methods to teach reading and writing; The spread of the endowed school and social changes; 4. Local endowed libraries and their readers; The central ruler library and the 'decline' of post-classical libraries; The development of the local endowed library; Profiles of holdings in private and local endowed libraries; 5. Popular reading practices; The popular epic; Popular epics and the written word; Textualisation and challenges to scholarly authority; Writing for a popular readership; 6. Conclusion.
