Books, booksellers and libraries in Antiquity

What were books like in the ancient world? How were the libraries organized? The delicious booklet of Stefano Manferlotti “Books, booksellers and libraries of the ancient world” edited by Langella for the collection ‘O scarrafone (pp. 48.6 euros) and out on June 26, answers these questions.

In this writing, essential but very well documented, the author accompanies us into the fascinating world of ancient books. Often giving voice to protagonists like Aristophanes, Plutarch, Catullus, Martial, he takes us into Greek and Roman bookstores and libraries, both public and private. Portraits of passionate collectors also emerge, who even at the time were ready to splurge to own the most beautiful and rarest examples.

Stefano Manferlotti is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Naples Federico II. He has published numerous volumes and essays covering wide areas of English literature, from Renaissance theater to the 19th-century novel, to modernist and postmodern storytelling. Among his most important monographs, we can cite Anti-utopia. Huxley Orwell Burgess (Palermo, Sellerio, 1984), Romanzo ed etnia in Gran Bretagna (Naples, Liguori, 1995), James Joyce (Catanzaro, Rubbettino, 1997), Amleto in parodia (Rome, Bulzoni, 2005), Shakespeare (Rome, Salerno Editrice, 2010), Rosso elisabettiano. Saggi su Shakespeare (Naples, Liguori, 2017). He translated works by Dickens, Chesterton, Melville, London and Orwell into Italian. One of his annotated translations of Orwell’s Animal Farm is about to be released by Marsilio of Venice.

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