Caesar, standing next ot his opponent in the Senate, is observed reading a billet-doux sent to him by his opponent's sister (Manguel, 1996). Most evident in this situation is Caesar's need to maintain secrecy while reading this love letter. A silent reading of the letter then is the most logical way in which to ascertain the protestations of love in the letter without alerting his opponent to the contents.
"People read silently when they are concentrating hard, because voicing words is a distraction to thought" (Manguel, 1996). Ptolemy's comments appear to contradict the foundations of oral cultures as it implies that speakers during that time could have been distracted by their own words. However, the formulaic nature of oration would have aided the speaker in accessing and retrieving what he intended to say next. As such, Ptolemy's observations ring true to some extent.
Punctuation, developed by Aristophanes of Byzantium and other scholars of the Library of Alexandria, was erratic (Manguel, 1996). Ancient writing on scrolls did not separate words or make a distinction between lower-case and upper-case letters. Punctuation was minimal because people were accustomed to reading aloud using their ears to separate thoughts (Manguel, 1996). Here, one is made aware of the power of orality and speech in pre-literate cultures. Today, punctuation determines, for the reader, when to pause and how to change inflection in his/her voice etc. Clearly, oral cultures placed a great deal of trust, and accepted personal interpretation on the part of the speaker while literate societies, through the use of specific grammar and punctuation, expect text to be the exact same or very similar every time.
Saint Cyril urged women to read while waiting during ceremonies "quietly however, so that, while their lips speak, no other ears may hear what they say" (Manguel, 1996). Based on his advice, it is apparent that Saint Cyril was a believer in the same ideas about oral speech being a distraction as Ptolemy.
Augustine and a friend read together, one silently for private learning and the other out loud to share with his companion (Manguel, 1996). Interestingly, in both Manguel's research and the painting 'Take up and Read' there were times when reading aloud and silent reading occurred at the same time. Saint Cyril and Ptolemy would most likely have found these instances distracting for the silent reader or others deep in thought.
Alexander the Great is said to have been observed, according to Plutarch, silently reading a letter from his mother - to the great surprise of his soldiers (Manguel, 1996). Interesting to read that the soldiers were surprised as Manguel does not elaborate on what the soldiers are bewildered by. Although one assumes that they are amazed by their leader's ability to read silently, there may be other factors to consider. For instance, they may be surprised that Alexander the Great's mother writes to him during a campaign, or that his mother can write at all. However, being of the high born state that she would have held. The soldiers may also be amazed by the fact that their leader read this private correspondence in their presence. In the end, there is still the matter that he demonstrates the ability to silently read at a time when this is not a common practice.
Two separate plays around 500 BC show characters reading silently: 1. Theseus silently reads a letter held by his deceased wife in Euripides' Hippolytus. 2. Demosthenes appears startled by what he silently reads on a writing tablet in Aristophanes' The Knights (Manguel, 1996). While these playwrights may have used the technique of silent reading to build suspense and anticipation in the audience, the fact that they both utilized the same idea hints that silent reading may have had roots in certain circles at this time.
Saint Augustine describes the city of Milan's Bishop Ambrose as an extraordinary reader because when "Ambrose was not eating a frugal meal or entertaining one of his many admirers, he was alone in his cell, reading" (Manguel, 1996). Augustine's admiration continues as for when Ambrose read, "his eyes scanned the page and his heart sought out the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still. [Ambrose was often] found reading like this in silence, for he never read aloud" (Manguel, 1996). This method of reading, the silent perusal of the page, was something out of the ordinary, as "when ancients read privately, movements of the eye were invariably accompanied by gestures of the mouth and tongue" (Saenger, 1982). It is understandable then why Saint Augustine was so baffled by the sight of a silently reading Bishop.
Public readings were common with texts calling audiences to 'lend their ears' (Manguel, 1996). Texts were composed orally and were expected to be read aloud (Saenger, 1997). Reading was largely a social activity with the majority of reading being aloud and with others. Reading alone or silently to oneself was considered strange and even selfish, for it seemed like one was unwilling to share his contents with others (Wharton, 2012). Saenger (1982), suggests that "when the ancients read silently, they did so only momentarily as an attempt to conceal the contents of brief documents or as an involuntary reaction of astonishment to an unanticipated thought in the text”. At this stage in history, oral readings in public dominated society, although in private, as evidenced previously, silent reading was taking hold.
Saint Isaac of Syria recognizes that punctuation assists silent reflection and connection of thoughts (Manguel, 1996). Perhaps, the insistence of punctuation to pause the reader, gave him/her the opportunity to reflect and consider before moving on. In fact, punctuation would have also allowed the reader to resume exactly where he/she left off given the visual cues of the marks on the page.
Reading aloud was the norm in ancient libraries (Manguel, 1996). As reading consisted of verbal sounding out, multiple readers in libraries would have created a loud academic setting contrary to the presently held notions of libraries as places of silent, academic research and reflection.
Theologian Isidore of Seville praises silent reading as a method for "reflecting on that which has been read, rendering their escape from memory less easy" (Manguel, 1996). Isidore hints here that the practice of silent reading helps one to remember the facts read, setting the stage for aspects explored in cognitive learning theory in the early 1900s.
Celtic priests attempted to transcribe texts with having very little knowledge of Latin. They first had to separate words in order to decode and derive meaning from them. This ultimately led to scribes copying silently and silent reading (Saenger, 1997). Scriptorium scribes took liberties to separate words to ease the reading of a text. This separation may have also been for aesthetic reasons. Around this time scribes were also expected to work in silence. (Manguel, 1996). It is at this moment in time that silent work places, silent reading and silent places of academic rigor begin to take root. In essence, the birth of the silent libraries.
Silent Reading becomes a common practice in the West (Manguel, 1996). While private silent reading in gaining popularity, it is still common place to have oral readings in public.
First lines of important sections in text were written in red ink as well as rubrics (Manguel, 1996). Such techniques make reading easier for both the public oral and private, silent reader.
While private, silent reading became increasingly pervasive in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, public lectures continued to play an important role in medieval university life (Saenger, 1997). So while the old traditions of oral reading still maintained a dominant grip of how people interacted with text, it was at the same time undergoing a process of remediation with silent reading.
A homogeneous form of written Latin was accepted across Western Europe which included graphic conventions, word order principles and and syntactic word grouping (Saenger, 1997). These attributes helped to make rapid silent reading more practicable.
"When texts were composed in silent isolation, authors expected them to be read silently” (Saenger, 1997). Evidently, authors began to be very reflective about the specifics of their intended reading audience. How, when and where books were being read were now factors in how or why the text was structured.
As the fifteenth century progressed, so too increased the pressure on the book trade to produce even larger quantities of books. Many monastic scriptoria found renewed life in meeting the growing demand for books (Clement, 1997). While the monks may have been happy to re-energize the writing activity within their scriptoria, the growing demand simply overwhelmed their ability to produce the number of books sought by the reading population. In the face of this shortage, a new technology would surely be needed to bridge the gap.
Given the public's growing appetite for books and the limitations of what scriptoria could produce, a new method of production was needed. Gutenberg saw the need and introduced his movable type printing press (Clement, 1997). The invention of printed text helped pave the way for rapid, silent reading. Printed text was easier to read than manuscripts as they were generally more legible (Ong, 1982).
In relatively rapid succession, Gutenberg printed bibles for individual, personal use. 1455: The 42 lines per page (B42 type), Gutenberg or Mazarine Bible printed. 1458: The 36 lines per page (B36 font) Bible printed by Gutenberg. This version was too expensive to produce given the fewer lines per page, in comparison with the B42 style Bible, and therefore it more pages and vellum required to produce the same work (Clement, 1997). I can be assumed that these bibles were being read at home by their owners, both orally to others and silently to themselves.
Within two decades, printing presses were spreading across Europe. 1460: Printing underway in Stassburg, France 1464: Printing introduced in Subiaco and Rome, Italy by Germans Sweynheym and Pannartz 1465: Printing underway in Cologne, Germany 1468: Printing underway in Basel, Switzerland 1470s: Presses were functioning in most of the countries of western Europe (Clement, 1997). Such a sweeping boom of printing press growth indicates that the need for more books was not slowing. This need must in part have been because of a growing trend toward book ownership for silent reading and reference.
Print was a major factor in developing a sense of personal privacy in modern society. It produced books smaller and more portable that those common in a manuscript culture, setting the stage psychologically for solo reading in a quiet corner, and eventually for completely silent reading (Ong, 1982).
In the 19th century and onward, an educated person can sometimes be described as 'well read'. In fact, proper enunciation and pronunciation of words [are] the mark of an educated person (Cheek & Cheek, 1980). Yet, while these skills are practiced and refined in part through silent reading, they are very much rooted in orality. So although Western society has become more literate, it still values aspects of its oral tradition.
Private reading demands a home spacious enough to provide for individual isolation and quiet (Ong, 1982). However, these requirements sometimes cannot be met within the home given the range in socio-economic status between families and also the increased demands on time due to work and extra-curricular activities. Fortunately, reading programs such as DEAR, USSR etc. aim to facilitate quiet spaces for students to read at school. Since Western education has accepted the notion that silent reading is an integral part of a well rounded, literate individual, such programs will most likely continue for the foreseeable future.
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