The Genesis of the Ancient Text: New Approaches

This paper will inquire into ancient note taking as a practice that allows us to reconstruct to some degree the working methods of ancient students, authors, and rhetors. I will approach this issue in a twofold manner. The literary and documentary papyri from Greek and Roman Egypt offer some examples of working drafts which contain notes and corrections that are similar to the genetic papers of modern authors.

In his vivid portrait of the author in the heat of revision, Euripides places emphasis on the repeated sealing and unsealing of the writing-tablet (IA 35-40 δέλτον ... σφραγίζεις λύεις τ' ὀπίσω), and the theme is recalled throughout the play's opening (IA 155-6, 325, 306). On one level, these words simply help paint a vignette, as do the other terms that refer specifically to a folding wax tablet (IA 35 ἀμπετάσας δέλτον, 37 γράμματα συγχεῖς, 39 πεύκην).

In ancient discussions of Virgil’s methods of literary production one idea recurs: that Virgil took painstaking care over the production of his poetry. Ancient biographies give details: he rapidly recorded his ideas in verse or prose, including incomplete or unsatisfactory lines with the expectation of removing them later, then ruthlessly cut his drafts down to a few lines per day (Vita Suetonii-Donati 22-4); he resisted revision or publication of his work by any other party (VSD 40).