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Education and Literacy in Ancient Italy: Evidence from the Dedications to the Goddess Reitia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2019

Katherine McDonald
Katherine McDonald*
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
*
k.l.mcdonald@exeter.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article discusses the votive dedications to the goddess Reitia at the sanctuary of Este-Baratella (Veneto) as evidence for the acquisition of literacy in Italy c. 350–150 b.c. These dedications, which take the form of bronze writing-tablets and styluses, are inscribed with Venetic dedicatory formulae, abecedaria and other writing exercises. This article shows how these texts function as writing exercises — some of the earliest evidence of elementary education methods in Italy. Many of the votives were dedicated by women, and this article argues that women were active participants in literacy and education in this period. It also sets the dedications in their Italian and Mediterranean context by comparing them to votive and funerary deposits of abecedaria from across Italy and the ancient world.

Keywords

VeneticReitiadedicationsvotivesliteracyeducationwomen
Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 109 , November 2019 , pp. 131 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2019. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies 

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Footnotes

Earlier versions of this paper were presented to research seminars at the Universities of Cambridge, Exeter and Newcastle in 2016 and 2017, at the conference ‘Parole per gli dèi’ at the Academia Belgica in May 2017 and at the British Epigraphy Society Autumn Colloquium in November 2018. I would like to thank these audiences for their comments and suggestions, particularly Daniele Maras and Philippa Steele. Patrick Clibbens, Philip Boyes, Emma-Jayne Graham, Liv Yarrow and Anna Judson also read the manuscript in its second and third incarnations and offered many helpful comments. Many thanks to the JRS readers, whose advice greatly improved this article and widened its scope. I would also like to thank the Museo Nazionale Atestino for permission to study and photograph the inscriptions discussed here. A large portion of this research was completed during a Rome Award at the British School at Rome in 2015, and I would like to thank the BSR for their generous support.

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