Orality and Visible Language
This chapter discusses the transition from the predominantly oral or aural reading of antiquity to the more visual act of reading that emerged in Late Antiquity along with the codex. It argues that readers of codices first began to introduce visual elements to aid in reading, such as numbered sections and chapters, as well as word separation, marginal symbols, and graphic signs of various sorts (e.g., puncutation). A shift towards visual access to the text occurred in the Middle Ages, allowing private understanding unmediated by aural cues. The author discusses the role of non-Latin speakers in this change, and observes that by the beginning of the fifteenth century the manuscripts took their most modern form, that of a text designed for private, silent reading.