### q4 book acquisition in ancient Rome relied on personal connections > I should also note though that while there were booksellers, there wasn’t anything that looked like modern publishing. A book’s initial circulation was informal and happened by the individual dissemination of a text by the author’s circle. Additionally, booksellers made their own copies, which means that, like getting a book to copy from a friend, patrons were limited to what their bookseller could access. And there was no sort of central publishing house, and there was no sort of large-scale printing that could then be distributed > > lack of a printing press didn’t prevent the development of a robust literary culture, one whose demands were capable of supporting the sale rather than solely the private distribution of books, but it looked quite different from what we see later. This is potentially useful for developing the culture of bookselling around [[Tal]] - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fgy1xqr8m8j54bgqn68cybz7) - [[bookstores in ancient Rome#q4 book acquisition in ancient Rome relied on personal connections|View in Vault]]