1998,The Politics of Latin Literature; Too and Livingstone (eds.) 1998,
Pedagogy and Power; and Haines-Eitzen 2000,Guardians of Letters.
The invention and role of writing has been pondered in relation to the
development of genres of poetry or of thought: lyric poetry (Ford 1993),
philosophy (for a range of views on this topic see the collection edited by
Robb 1983a,Language and Thought in Early Greek Philosophy;more
recently, Kahn 2003), science (Olson 1994b, Horowitz 1996). The role
of writing within—as well as its absence from—Greek and Roman reli-
gious practice and thought have been explored (Beard 1991, Scheid 1997,
Henrichs 2003b, de Polignac 2005; Moatti 1998 has a section on
religious documents). Within a given culture a continuous engagement
with the written word inevitably gives rise over time to scholarship.
Alexandria is the focus of Jacob and de Polignac (eds.) 1992,Alexandrie
IIIe sie`cle av. J.-C. The collection by MacDonald, Twomey, and Reinink
(eds.) 2003, Learned Antiquity: Scholarship and Society in the Near
East, the Greco-Roman World, and the Early Medieval West, ranges
broadly in chronological and geographic terms. Ancient poetic theory is
discussed by Ford 2002,The Origins of Criticism. Reynolds and Wilson
1991 (1st ed. 1968),Scribes and Scholars, give a history of the transmis-
sion of Greek and Latin literature, while Zetzel 1981,Latin Textual
Criticism in Antiquity, sheds light on the methods of ancient textual
scholarship (cf. Zetzel 1973, 1980). The titles of Timpanaro 1986,Per
la storia della filologia virgiliana antica, and Kaster 1988,Guardians
of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity, speak
for themselves. The collections by Kullmann and Althoff (eds.) 1993,
Vermittlung und Tradierung von Wissen, and Kullmann, Althoff, and
Asper (eds.) 1998,Gattungen wissenschaftlicher Literatur, embrace both
scholarship and technical writing. These topics bring us back to memory
(cf. above) and to the intersection of orality and written practices in
technical writings within such areas as medicine, geography, and
other realms of professional activity (for comprehensive treatments of
which see Nicolet 1996,Les litte ́ratures techniques, Meissner 1999,Die
technologische Fachliteratur, and Horster and Reitz [eds.] 2003,Antike
Fachschriftsteller).
It would be a mistake to conclude without mentioning some of the
valuable theoretical approaches and comparanda from cultures other than
those of ancient Greece and Rome. In the last half century the cultural
significance of writing has been subject to theoretical analysis in a number
of disciplines. An overview is given by Jahandarie 1999, Spoken and
Written Discourse: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective, who discusses the
views of Milman Parry, Albert Lord, Eric Havelock (1962,A Preface to
Plato; 1982,The Literate Revolution in Greece), Harold Innis, Marshall
McLuhan, Walter Ong (1982,Orality and Literacy), Jack Goody (1986,
The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society; 1987,The Interface
between the Written and the Oral), David Olson, and others; for further
340 Bibliographical Essay