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others, public readings of books were common, at least for the middle class, through the nineteenth century. Yet the process of silent reading which had emerged in late medieval times was implicated with other changes taking place to produce not only a new psychology of reading but a new psychology of existence. One characteristic shared by many of the changes taking place through the Renaissance was a tendency toward inwardness, privacy, and personal responsibility for one’s self. The worlds of the inner, private self and the outer public world become increasingly well d e f i n e d a n d t o a l a r g e e x t e n t d e f i n e o n e a n o t h e r . >>> Paul Saenger’s (1997) work on the origins of silent reading traces the development of particular technologies of physical textuality which supported changes in the way that readers engaged what had previously been a shared activity. He writes that ‘psychologically, silent reading emboldened the reader because it placed the source of his curiosity completely under personal control’ (1997: 264). While what one read might be personal, social forms of literature were becoming increasingly well defined. The derivation of those interpretations approved by the hierarchy of clerics and scholars had been guided by the social practices of reading; dictation and lectio ensured that the written word did not become too personal or private, and so they ‘buttressed theological and philosophical orthodoxy’ (1997: 264). Writing and reading had become private activities, and these changes were reflected in other sites of knowledge and other parts of society. It is important, again, to stress that these changes occurred together and that, while silent reading and the increased availability of books did not in themselves produce new ideas of the private self, they supported and fostered it, creating a series of activities in which the private self could be developed. >>> The self, of course, depends upon social interaction to create, reinforce, and develop it, and reading became for many people for the first time in history a part of the social activity in which the meaning and place of books in one’s class, one’s gender, and one’s family were negotiated. Selective social spaces within the home library allowed for collective readings, and a popular entertainment among the middle class was readings in small groups (Raven 1996: 199). Middle-class women especially were often involved in reading in ways much more varied and empowering than merely consuming novels, and in addition to being a leisure activity, reading aloud wit h small gr oups would be int egrat ed int o domestic work (Tadmore 1996). T he practice of reading in public even developed as a comm er ci al a n d s o ci al en t er pr i s e t h r o ug h t h e ni n e t een t h cen t u r y .
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