it, it facilitated a new way of engaging with the text. Scrolls, by their physical nature, demanded linear reading from start to finish. They required a commitment on the part of the reader and resisted attempts to extract individual nuggets of information. But with a codex book, readers could now flip between pages easily to pinpoint any passage in a text. As Hobart and Schiffman write, “The codex had the potential to transform the manuscript from a cumbersome mnemonic aid to a readily accessible information storehouse.” 2
The new technology of the book ushered in a whole new way of reading: random access. A document no longer had to be read from top to bottom; its pages could be flipped, allowing the reader to move around at will. By letting users move freely from page to page, the new book allowed readers to form their own networks of association within a particular text. Scrolls, on the other hand, encouraged linear reading. The book also had one more considerable advantage over the old scrolls: portability. While collections of papyrus scrolls and codex books coexisted in late Roman libraries, the destruction of the empire saw most of the great old library collections burned, plundered, or scattered. The codex book format proved hardier and more portable than the old scrolls; as a result, many scrolls failed to survive the fall of the Roman empire, and a great deal of the literature that lived on did so between the covers of bound books.
By the fifth century AD, Rome had conquered much of continental Europe and most of the neighboring island of Britannia, dispersing copies of books that would eventually make their way into monastic libraries throughout the former provinces. For all of Rome’s far-flung conquests, one island had always lain just beyond its reach: Ireland (or, as it was called, Hibernia). Throughout the era of Roman conquest, the Irish had lived in tribal communities not far removed from the preliterate cultures of Mesopotamia, Australia, or North America. Knowing nothing of reading, let alone Aristotle, people lived in small social groups with warring feudal kings and a shamanistic religious tradition, Druidism. Lacking any form of written language, they relied on oral traditions, mythology, and a web of symbols to preserve their understanding of the world. The old Druidic system was conceptually not far removed from the multilayered ancient folk systems of China, Greece, or aboriginal Australia.
The Irish Celts were a famously bellicose people, who warred with each other and occasionally raided neighboring England, where in the early fifth century a group of Irish pirates brought back a recalcitrant young slave named Saccath. After working naked in the fields tending goats for several years, the slave managed to escape his captors and find his way to Gaul, where he spent the next 12 years at the monastery of Saint Germain, learning to read and studying the Gospels. Eventually, he decided to leave the monastery, vowing to return to Ireland to spread the word of God among his former captors. In the course of fulfilling that aspiration, the onetime slave—known to us now as Saint Patrick—would forever alter the course of Western European thought.
While Saint Patrick was not the first Christian missionary to reach Ireland, he was certainly the most successful. Within a mere 30 years he managed to convert the entire Irish population to the new faith. While Patrick’s success undoubtedly had a great deal to do with his personal charisma, he also had technology on his side. Patrick introduced the Irish to the written word. He returned to Hibernia armed with a copy of the Latin Gospel. That lone volume would become the catalyst for Ireland’s encounter with literacy. Patrick initiated the long process of transplanting the literate culture of classicalantiquity into the shamanistic oral culture of Ireland. The result was an extraordinarily successful cultural adaptation. The drift of classical
The new technology of the book ushered in a whole new way of reading: random access. A document no longer had to be read from top to bottom; its pages could be flipped, allowing the reader to move around at will. By letting users move freely from page to page, the new book allowed readers to form their own networks of association within a particular text. Scrolls, on the other hand, encouraged linear reading. The book also had one more considerable advantage over the old scrolls: portability. While collections of papyrus scrolls and codex books coexisted in late Roman libraries, the destruction of the empire saw most of the great old library collections burned, plundered, or scattered. The codex book format proved hardier and more portable than the old scrolls; as a result, many scrolls failed to survive the fall of the Roman empire, and a great deal of the literature that lived on did so between the covers of bound books.
By the fifth century AD, Rome had conquered much of continental Europe and most of the neighboring island of Britannia, dispersing copies of books that would eventually make their way into monastic libraries throughout the former provinces. For all of Rome’s far-flung conquests, one island had always lain just beyond its reach: Ireland (or, as it was called, Hibernia). Throughout the era of Roman conquest, the Irish had lived in tribal communities not far removed from the preliterate cultures of Mesopotamia, Australia, or North America. Knowing nothing of reading, let alone Aristotle, people lived in small social groups with warring feudal kings and a shamanistic religious tradition, Druidism. Lacking any form of written language, they relied on oral traditions, mythology, and a web of symbols to preserve their understanding of the world. The old Druidic system was conceptually not far removed from the multilayered ancient folk systems of China, Greece, or aboriginal Australia.
The Irish Celts were a famously bellicose people, who warred with each other and occasionally raided neighboring England, where in the early fifth century a group of Irish pirates brought back a recalcitrant young slave named Saccath. After working naked in the fields tending goats for several years, the slave managed to escape his captors and find his way to Gaul, where he spent the next 12 years at the monastery of Saint Germain, learning to read and studying the Gospels. Eventually, he decided to leave the monastery, vowing to return to Ireland to spread the word of God among his former captors. In the course of fulfilling that aspiration, the onetime slave—known to us now as Saint Patrick—would forever alter the course of Western European thought.
While Saint Patrick was not the first Christian missionary to reach Ireland, he was certainly the most successful. Within a mere 30 years he managed to convert the entire Irish population to the new faith. While Patrick’s success undoubtedly had a great deal to do with his personal charisma, he also had technology on his side. Patrick introduced the Irish to the written word. He returned to Hibernia armed with a copy of the Latin Gospel. That lone volume would become the catalyst for Ireland’s encounter with literacy. Patrick initiated the long process of transplanting the literate culture of classicalantiquity into the shamanistic oral culture of Ireland. The result was an extraordinarily successful cultural adaptation. The drift of classical
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