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Historia de la lectura y de la escritura en el mundo occidental
La historia de la lectura y de la escritura abordada por Martyn Lyons sigue la línea de investigaciones de Roger Chartier, Guglielmo Cavallo y Armando Petrucci; como ellos, en lugar de poner el acento en los productores de libros o en los autores, Lyons lo sitúa en los lectores, en su capacidad para seleccionar, interpretar y rehacer lo que leen. Por otro lado, entre el autor y el lector, además de los textos, existen otros factores que determinan su relación a través del tiempo: la forma física, el formato o la disposición tipográfica que adoptan los textos en cada una de sus ediciones y, si las hubiera, en sus sucesivas reediciones.
Con una gran claridad expositiva y una edición muy cuidada, la obra de Lyons es esencial tanto para los que se inician en el estudio de la lectura y la escritura como para los especialistas, no solamente porque abarca un extensísimo período (desde la Antigüedad hasta el presente), sino también porque analiza críticamente las investigaciones que se han realizado desde la formación de la historia social de la cultura escrita.
Con una gran claridad expositiva y una edición muy cuidada, la obra de Lyons es esencial tanto para los que se inician en el estudio de la lectura y la escritura como para los especialistas, no solamente porque abarca un extensísimo período (desde la Antigüedad hasta el presente), sino también porque analiza críticamente las investigaciones que se han realizado desde la formación de la historia social de la cultura escrita.
423 pages, Paperback
First published December 15, 2009
About the author
Martyn Lyons
31 books10 followersEmeritus Professor of History & European Studies
BA DPhil Oxford FAHA
School of Humanities and Languages
He was born in London, took his D.Phil. at Oxford University and has been at UNSW since 1977. He is a former head of the history school, and was the Faculty’s Associate Dean for Research and Postgraduate Affairs from 2002-7. He is currently Professor of History and European Studies in the School of Humanities. His main research interests are in two distinct fields: French revolutionary and Napoleonic history and the history of books, reading and writing in Europe and Australia. He has produced sixteen books, including 'A History of Reading and Writing in the Western World' (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010), and more recently 'The Writing Culture of ordinary people in Europe, c. 1860-1920' (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
He is currently working on an ARC-funded project to investigate the writing practices of uneducated and semi-literate peasants in France, Spain and Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
He has held visiting positions at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the University of Alcalá de Henares and the Universidade Federal Fluminense in Niteroi, Brazil. In 1997, he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy for the Humanities. In 2003, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to the Humanities in the study of History. In 2008-20, he was President of the Australian Historical Association. In 2008, he was Campagnia di San Paolo- Bogliasco Foundation Fellow at the Liguria Study Centre in Genoa, and in 2010 he was a Camargo Foundation Fellow in Cassis, France.
BA DPhil Oxford FAHA
School of Humanities and Languages
He was born in London, took his D.Phil. at Oxford University and has been at UNSW since 1977. He is a former head of the history school, and was the Faculty’s Associate Dean for Research and Postgraduate Affairs from 2002-7. He is currently Professor of History and European Studies in the School of Humanities. His main research interests are in two distinct fields: French revolutionary and Napoleonic history and the history of books, reading and writing in Europe and Australia. He has produced sixteen books, including 'A History of Reading and Writing in the Western World' (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010), and more recently 'The Writing Culture of ordinary people in Europe, c. 1860-1920' (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
He is currently working on an ARC-funded project to investigate the writing practices of uneducated and semi-literate peasants in France, Spain and Italy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
He has held visiting positions at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes in Paris, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, the University of Alcalá de Henares and the Universidade Federal Fluminense in Niteroi, Brazil. In 1997, he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy for the Humanities. In 2003, he was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to the Humanities in the study of History. In 2008-20, he was President of the Australian Historical Association. In 2008, he was Campagnia di San Paolo- Bogliasco Foundation Fellow at the Liguria Study Centre in Genoa, and in 2010 he was a Camargo Foundation Fellow in Cassis, France.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 25, 2026
"Literacy on its own never saved anyone from poverty, but thousands remain convinced that it holds the key to intellectual fulfilment and full democratic participation in the world" (104)
Decent overview which does what the title suggests and not much more. Useful and serviceable as an intro to the subject, but reads a bit too much like an grad thesis without much originality. It's more of a summary of the broad data and ideas around the subject, rather than a genuinely novel contribution.
Decent overview which does what the title suggests and not much more. Useful and serviceable as an intro to the subject, but reads a bit too much like an grad thesis without much originality. It's more of a summary of the broad data and ideas around the subject, rather than a genuinely novel contribution.
September 7, 2026
Una muy buena visión general sobre la lectura y la escritura en Occidente, con una aproximación crítica a ciertos lugares comunes sobre algunos hitos de esa historia. Por ejemplo, el real impacto de la invención de la imprenta.
Uno de los grandes aciertos de la obra de Lyons es la capacidad de mostrar, con buena evidencia, cómo las transformaciones de la lectura y la escritura no fueron procesos homogéneos, sino que en muchas ocasiones cambios y continuidades convivieron mucho más de lo que se tiende a afirmar. En esto, el autor hace un ejercicio permanente de poner en contexto cada etapa histórica.
Por otro lado, muy interesante resulta su aproximación a la lectura y la escritura como fenómenos que no siempre fueron de la mano, algo que parece una anomalía visto desde las sociedades occidentales actuales, en las que ambas competencias de lectoescritura se desarrollan casi en simultáneo.
Por último, el libro permite entender que las sociedades con plena (o casi plena) alfabetización son una excepción histórica. Aunque en el capitulo final Lyons tiende a cierto moderado optimismo, conecto la excepcionalidad de las sociedades alfabetizadas con la idea de un mundo post alfabetizado planteado por Rose Horowitch en un reciente ensayo en The Atlantic, “The End of Reading is Here”.
En resumen, un libro muy recomendable por la visión de conjunto que entrega.
Uno de los grandes aciertos de la obra de Lyons es la capacidad de mostrar, con buena evidencia, cómo las transformaciones de la lectura y la escritura no fueron procesos homogéneos, sino que en muchas ocasiones cambios y continuidades convivieron mucho más de lo que se tiende a afirmar. En esto, el autor hace un ejercicio permanente de poner en contexto cada etapa histórica.
Por otro lado, muy interesante resulta su aproximación a la lectura y la escritura como fenómenos que no siempre fueron de la mano, algo que parece una anomalía visto desde las sociedades occidentales actuales, en las que ambas competencias de lectoescritura se desarrollan casi en simultáneo.
Por último, el libro permite entender que las sociedades con plena (o casi plena) alfabetización son una excepción histórica. Aunque en el capitulo final Lyons tiende a cierto moderado optimismo, conecto la excepcionalidad de las sociedades alfabetizadas con la idea de un mundo post alfabetizado planteado por Rose Horowitch en un reciente ensayo en The Atlantic, “The End of Reading is Here”.
En resumen, un libro muy recomendable por la visión de conjunto que entrega.
November 26, 2025
Me tocó leerlo para la tesis y fue realmente una lectura disfrutable, no resulta una lectura pesada para ser un libro de historia, da mucho ejemplo lo cual lo hace más ameno, y me gustó cómo destacó la figura de la mujer que no lo había visto en otros libros, como grandes lectoras.
September 6, 2026
Tuve q leer para clase pero igual mas entrete
September 12, 2012
A well-written and intelligently skeptical examination of the history of reading and writing in the Western world. Lyons works to better contextualize the use of common evidence like the ability of people to sign legal documents and the numbers of vernacular Bibles in circulation. For example, he points out that since people learned to read before they learned to write (and many, especially women, never learned to write at all), using signatures as a sign of literacy ends up overestimating the number of people who could write and underestimates the number who could read.
Lyons also tries to show how over-simplified some historians' conclusions have been--Latin didn't disappear quite as rapidly as sometimes thought, nationalist feeling could be spread orally as well as in print, and print did not "stabilize" the text--this stability, when it came, was culturally produced by a community of writers, printers, etc.
For such a short work, he manages to examine and deconstruct a large number of myths, in addition to ones already mentioned that the coming of print was a "revolution," that print "caused" the Protestant Reformation, that readers moved from "intensive" to "extensive" styles of reading, etc.
Lyons also tries to show how over-simplified some historians' conclusions have been--Latin didn't disappear quite as rapidly as sometimes thought, nationalist feeling could be spread orally as well as in print, and print did not "stabilize" the text--this stability, when it came, was culturally produced by a community of writers, printers, etc.
For such a short work, he manages to examine and deconstruct a large number of myths, in addition to ones already mentioned that the coming of print was a "revolution," that print "caused" the Protestant Reformation, that readers moved from "intensive" to "extensive" styles of reading, etc.
October 22, 2012
Lyons offers an enjoyable and broad look at how reading and the culture of books developed in Europe with a particular focus on Britain, France and Germany. The scope is very broad for a fairly short book; there is not a lot of depth offered despite a variety of incident and detail. Would have appreciated a look beyond the three big nations or more detail on some periods. I was particularly looking for information about how these readers obtained their books and found this lacking. Still, an enjoyable overview with interesting details.
September 2, 2012
What a fantastic book!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews