The Christian Codex And The Pocket Sized Bookroll

Scholars often attribute the compactness and portability of a codex as the impetus for Christians to have adopted this format for their scriptures at an early date. For example, the itinerate preaching of the early apostles and evangelists could have necessitated the compactness and portability of the codex over the roll (Epp, "The Codex," 20-22). As is often counter argued, these types of modern attitudes towards the codex are likely influenced by anachronistic ideas about the book (Larsen and Letteney, "Christians and the Codex," 390-391). With this in mind I came across a few references in Aulus Gellius's Attic Nights (2nd cen. CE) that shed light on the alleged portability of the codex verses the roll.

In Gellius's account, Scipio Africanus was being accused in front of the senate of taking a bribe from King Antiochus. In response to this Gellius recounts,

"Thereupon Scipio arose, and taking a roll from the fold of his toga, said that it contained an account of all the money and all the booty; that he had brought it to be publicly read and deposited in the treasury. "But that," said he, "I shall not do now, nor will I so degrade myself." And at once, before them all, he tore the roll across with his own hands and rent it into bits, indignant that an account of money taken in war should be required of him, to whose account the salvation of the Roman State and its power ought to be credited." (Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 4.18.9-12)

In this account, Scipio wasn't carrying a proper bookroll containing a lengthy literary work. It appeared to be some sort of leger of smaller size because Scipio was able to tear it into shreds fairly easily. This would have been much more difficult for a normal full-sized literary roll.

Later in the work, Gellius recounts a personal story in which he was in a book shop and a "foolish man" was boasting that he was the only person who could truly understand Marcus Varro's Satires.

"At the time I chanced to have with me a book of those Satires, entitled Ὑδροκύων, or The Water Dog. I therefore went up to him and said: "Master, of course you know that old Greek saying, that music, if it be hidden, is of no account.​ I beg you therefore to read these few lines and tell me the meaning of the proverb contained in them." (Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 13.31.2-3)

This account is a fascinating retelling of a duel of minds, with Gellius exposing the "foolish man's" ignorance of the text. In this instance, the bookroll carried by Gellius was a proper roll containing literature. Thus, in the same manner as Scipio, Gellius was able to carry this roll on his person and produce it quickly and rapidly find the relevant passage with ease.

Later in his work, Gellius recounts a story in which a bright young man was having a conversation in a public space about an historical fact concerning a passage in Homer's Illiad. Some "half educated fellows" were present and ignorantly interjected themselves into the conversation.

"One or two half-educated fellows who were present there, of the class that the Greeks call ἀγοραῖοι, or “haunters of the market-place,” laughed in derision of this statement, and declared that the man who had made it had read a copy of Homer which happened to lack the following verse: "And rotted the ship's timbers, loosed the ropes (σπάρτα)." Then the youth, in great vexation, replied: “It was not my book that lacked that line, but you who badly lacked a teacher, if you believe that σπάρτα in that verse means what we call spartum, or 'a rope of Spanish broom'.” They only laughed the louder, and would have continued to do so, had he not produced the twenty-fifth book of Varro's Human Antiquities, in which Varro writes as follows of that Homeric word: “I believe that σπάρτα in Homer does not mean sparta, or 'Spanish broom,' but rather σπάρτοι, a kind of broom which is said to grow in the Theban territory. " (Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 17.3)

In this account, it is not exactly clear where the story takes place. Judging by the description of the "half-educated fellows" it likely occurred in a public marketplace of some kind. The bright young man happened to be carrying a roll that contained a copy of the twenty-fifth book of Marcus Varro's Human Antiquities. This was a literary work written in a bookroll and the youth had no problem finding the relevant passage quickly and producing it for the other "foolish-men" to read for themselves.

In each of these cases recounted by Gellius, a bookroll was easily carried by the hero of the story. The relevant passage was quickly located and produced for the protagonist to read for themselves. Though limited in scope, this evidence reveals the anachronistic tendencies of modern arguments for the Christian preference for the codex. It seems that an educated itinerant preacher would have had no problem carrying a gospel in a roll format, producing it during an evangelism event, and finding a relevant gospel passage from which to engage with the listeners.

EDIT: A reader of the blog, Viktor Johansson, responded with some excellent observations through private message. Some important objections to my quick take on Gellius, especially concerning the account at 17.3, are these: 

First, I can't assume that the discussion with the educated young man takes place in a marketplace outdoors. This account could have just as easily occurred in a personal library or outside of a public library where texts like Varro's would have been readily available.

Second, and most importantly of all, because the heroes of these stories are educated well-to-do men, they most likely had a retinue of slaves at hand with them. These would have been invisible in the story. Any one of these attendants could have gone and fetched the book for the protagonist either from the location at hand (in a public or private library) or had been carrying it upon their persons.

All in all, this excellent response reveals my own anachronistic assumptions that I bring to the text of Gellius. At best these accounts from Gellius reveal that educated men in the high Roman empire were adept at handling a bookroll and could easily find the relevant passage a roll.

EDIT#2: Johansson responded again with some more excellent observations on these passages in Attic Nights. Gellius, speaking in the first person, recounts a scene where he visits Fronto who was sick and sitting on a couch "surrounded by men famous for learning, birth, or fortune." In the middle of this scene, Fronto is being shown plans for a bath "drawn on little pieces of parchment." A dispute suddenly arises over the meaning of a word that Fronto uses. To settle the matter, a famous grammarian sitting nearby is pointed out. The grammarian argues that the word is "better known in the talk of mechanics than in that of cultivated men." Fronto replied in the following manner.

"But Fronto, raising his voice and with a more earnest expression, said: “Sir, does this word seem to you so degraded and utterly faulty, when Marcus Cato and Marcus Varro, and the early writers in general, have used it as necessary and as good Latin?” And thereupon Julius Celsinus reminded him that also in the tragedy of Ennius entitled Iphigeina the very word about which we were inquiring was found, and that it was more frequently corrupted by the grammarians than explained. Consequently, he at once asked that the Iphigenia of Quintus Ennius be brought and in a chorus of that tragedy we read these lines: . . .When this had been read there, then Fronto said to the grammarian, who was already wavering . . . ." (Gellius, Noctes Atticae, 19.10)

This account is fascinating and should be read in its entirety. I only wanted to quote the relevant few lines here because they paint a vivid picture of the scene. Fronto is ill, surrounded by many educated men in his private home. A dispute arises with a grammarian and Fronto asks his attendants (not mentioned up to this point) to fetch a specific book of literature. Gellius doesn't specify who reads the text, whether Fronto himself or an attendant, or perhaps the grammarian himself. Either way it appears that the text was read out loud to everyone present. This account sheds light on the other reading events quoted above, especially at 17.3. It is possible that these events took place in a similar situation as 19.10 with attendants present and in a location with books readily available.

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Eldon J. Epp, "The Codex and Literacy in Early Christianity and at Oxyrhynchus: Issues Raised by Harry Y. Gamble’s Books and Readers in the Early Church" in Critical Review of Books in Religion 11 (1988): 15-37.

Matthew D. C. Larsen, Mark Letteney, "Christians and the Codex: Generic Materiality and Early Gospel Traditions" in Journal of Early Christian Studies 27.3 (2019): 383-415.

William A. Johnson, Readers and Reading Culture in the High Roman Empire: A Study of Elite Communities (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 129 footnote 54.