Page "Ambrose" Paragraph 65

This is a celebrated passage in modern scholarly discussion.

The practice of reading to oneself without vocalizing the text was less common in antiquity than it has since become.

In a culture that set a high value on oratory and public performances of all kinds, in which the production of books was very labor-intensive, the majority of the population was illiterate, and where those with the leisure to enjoy literary works also had slaves to read for them, written texts were more likely to be seen as scripts for recitation than as vehicles of silent reflection.

However, there is also evidence that silent reading did occur in antiquity and that it was not generally regarded as unusual.