I have checked my reference and its not T.Aquinas but
St Ambrose who impressed T.Aquinas because he could
read without sound or without 'moving his tounge'
I read somewhere, that it was communism in China that
really helped literacy in that country, prior to the
revolution less than 2% or something could read. The
communists had a very extensive education program,
(hard to write that without it having very sinister
overtones). Also they changed the orthography, making
characters easier to write.... hmmm I think that this
might have to be filed under things that dictatorships
have done for the good, put next to
Mussolini and removing cholera from Italy
Tito keeping ethnic strife to a minimum.
Though I believe that Nazi trains didn't run on time,
though if they had then it wouldn't have been a good
thing.
I wonder if you might get some clearer thoughts on
this from the Alberto Manguels book on "the history of
reading", from where I got the information about
Aquinas and St Ambrose. In the biography there are a
number of references dealing with reading aloud:
Knox "silent reading in Antiquity" from Greek Roman
and Byzantine Studies 9/14 Winter 1968!
and even worse
a 1927 article called 'Voces Paginarum' from
(Philologus 82)[ the best of luck finding that!]
maybe "A history of writing" Albertine Gaur london
1984 might provide better biograhpical resources.
Nothing though about China, in"history of reading",
except a short thing about book burning.
If you've not read "A History of reading" it is a
wonderful book.
good luck with your project.
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