Roger Pearse

I'm not sure what is being asked here. Are you after a history of literature from earliest times to Gutenberg? Or something on the history of the book itself to that date?

I don't know a website in either case; the former would be a vast thing, the latter would be covered by Reynolds & Wilson, "Scribes and scholars".

Amaleq13

The potential derail posts have been moved here: http://www.freeratio.org//showthread.php?t=262271

Management

semiopen

Maybe this is a Christian thing or something but the original post went:

Mointainman came up with what looks like an exact date in at least one example and this is a derail.

Ok, it must be too deep for me.

Toto

mountainman came up with a date in the Acts of Pilate, which is 1) a forgery 2) a bit past the period that this thread is concerned (we don't know the date - it is assigned to the 4th or 5th century by predominantly Christian scholars, but it is only known as part of a medieval manuscript, the Acts of Nicodemus.)

It happens to be one of mm's favorite topics, but he can't get anyone else interested in it, and he didn't make a connection to the OP. Does he think we are supposed to trust that date?

mountainman

So what? The OP said "books". Forgeries abound in this field: most of the Pauline Epistles are generally classified as forgeries.

The OP did not state a date period.
The date is not derived from the assessment of scholars.
It is part of the original text from antiquity.
See the cite from the CCEL provided elsewhere.
The OP asked about the dating of books.
This received text (I wont mention the name)
explicitly provides an authorial date.

Toto

The question is "why didn't ancient authors ever identify when they wrote their books?" This was specifically asked about first and second century letters.

Does a date in a medieval manuscript which might reflect an earlier writing do anything to illuminate this question?

mountainman

Data is data. Part of the OP's discussion implied that all christian works
were undated and nameless. Arguably this is not the case.

That is not up to me to decide. All I can say is that data is data and that IMO the exceptions to the rules are just as important to the overall picture as the rules themselves.

Joan of Bark

It's the latter. I'm interested in finding out how manuscripts and books appeared before the printing press. (Hope I'm not derailing, but I think my query is related to the question in the OP).

Celsus

Am I the only one here waiting for an appropriate Boro Nut post?

Roger Pearse

Reynolds and Wilson is the book you want, I think. It's the standard textbook on how books got from their authors to us, the physical forms of ancient books, the book trade, etc; and fortunately is not too hard going. Make sure you get the latest edition.

All the best,

Roger Pearse