It is natural, therefore, that the few who were able to read well would read to others. Besides being an act of solidarity, reading in Byzantium is believed to have been regularly done aloud and clearly, even if the reader was alone. In contrast to the practice of today, reading stimulated more senses in those days: Either using his finger or a thin rod, the reader’s pointer slowly wandered along the lines of the manuscript, helping him to maintain his focus. Competitions of public reading of texts were organized in amphitheatres by communities, while in churches and monasteries, various liturgical texts were read aloud. The Book of the Gospels, a liturgical book usually bound with an ornate outer cover used for reading to the public, contains segments from the gospels appropriate for each day of the year, organized sequentially. Finally, during the course of meals in the refectory of the monasteries, a monk reads from a portable lectern – or on feast days, from the pulpit, if there is one – the words of the Church fathers, teachings of elders, or lives of saints, so that all who are silently eating can hear.
