Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading

Author:   Paul Saenger
Publisher:   Stanford University Press
Edition:   1st New edition
ISBN:  

9780804740166


Pages:   504
Publication Date:   01 January 2000
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Our Price $65.95 Quantity:  
Add to Cart

Share |

Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading


Add your own review!

Overview

Reading, like any human activity, has a history. Modern reading is a silent and solitary activity. Ancient reading was usually oral, either aloud, in groups, or individually, in a muffled voice. The text format in which thought has been presented to readers has undergone many changes in order to reach the form that the modern Western reader now views as immutable and nearly universal. This book explains how a change in writing the introduction of word separation led to the development of silent reading during the period from late antiquity to the fifteenth century. Over the course of the nine centuries following Rome s fall, the task of separating the words in continuous written text, which for half a millennium had been a function of the individual reader s mind and voice, became instead a labor of professional readers and scribes. The separation of words (and thus silent reading) originated in manuscripts copied by Irish scribes in the seventh and eighth centuries but spread to the European continent only in the late tenth century when scholars first attempted to master a newly recovered corpus of technical, philosophical, and scientific classical texts.

Full Product Details

Author:   Paul Saenger
Publisher:   Stanford University Press
Imprint:   Stanford University Press
Edition:   1st New edition
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.644kg
ISBN:  

9780804740166


ISBN 10:   080474016
Pages:   504
Publication Date:   01 January 2000
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Appendix:

Reviews

Saenger's remarkable new book . . . demonstrates that . . . the scribal innovations of medieval Europe were no less seminal and far-reaching thatn those of post-Gutenberg typesetters. . . . for the first time, we see the evolution of writing, print, and computing not as a succession of fitful revolutions but, rather, as a continuum of technological innovation. -- College and Research Libraries


Saenger outlined his revolutionary thesis 15 years ago in his famous essay 'Silent Reading'; the present magisterial book retells the story step by step... Paleographic studies rarely command wide audiences, but Saenger tells so important a story that Space Between Words will interest all who are concerned with the history of reading or the book. - Choice Saenger's remarkable new book ... demonstrates that ... the scribal innovations of medieval Europe were no less seminal and far-reaching thatn those of post-Gutenberg typesetters... for the first time, we see the evolution of writing, print, and computing not as a succession of fitful revolutions but, rather, as a continuum of technological innovation. - College and Research Libraries The work is, or should be, reading matter for every medievalist, not only for its impeccable scholarship and the information it contains, but also for Saenger's readiness to include neurophysiological evidence in support of his argument - Written Language and Literacy Very solid and convincing... a first rate analysis of how word separation emerged in the seventh and eigth centuries and eventually spread all over Europe. - Mediaevistik This is an impressive, fascinating, and exasperating work of scholarship... Language in Society


Author Information

Paul Saenger is George A. Poole III Curator of Rare Books at the Newberry Library, Chicago.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions
Latest Reading Guide

Aorrng

Shopping Cart
Your cart is empty
Shopping cart
Mailing List