Opificio 16th January 2017

Paolo Fioretti (Bari ‘Aldo Moro’) has analysed two pivotal testimonies on the nature of ancient Latin books: a papyrus (P.Iand. 90 recto) and a parchment codex (Pal. Lat. 24). The papyrus contains a fragment from Cicero’s Against Verres and is a luxury item from 1st AD Latin book craftsmanship: it was probably employed in a school of rhetoric, or anyway of use in an educational context. As for the Palatine codex, it is a palimpsest, some of whose pages came from a copy of Aulus Gellius’ Noctes Atticae. The original book must have been enormous in size and organised in detached folders; it was probably produced in the Severan period (late 2nd-early 3rd AD).