Was Silent Reading Unusual During Augustine's Time?

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Was silent reading unusual during Augustine's time? Johnson quoted Augustine's passage from the Confessions concerning the reading habits of his mentor, the archbishop of Milan, Aurelius Ambrosius, who read silently. But the preservation of his voice, which easily became hoarse, may well have been the true cause of his silent reading. " In A History of Reading (1996) Alberto Manguel devoted Chapter Two to "The Silent Readers. " This was one of the most detailed expositions on silent reading, including the issue of how reading aloud was probably the norm since the beginning of the written word.

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