Hello,
Recently I've had a nagging question at me. I'm wondering how much a book cost in Rome at around 50 AD. Now, before anyone corrects me, I know that the book in the modern sense didn't exactly exist. They had parchments until the codex was invented c.90 AD in Rome as Juvenal (or someone else) relates. But they did have "the quire" I think, which was a stack of 24 papyrus scrolls. So my question is, how much did a "book" or "quire" or even a single papyrus scroll, or something like that cost in ancient Rome around the year 50? I know that prices would have probably varied from region to region, but any information in general is more than welcomed. I found a cryptic reference in a book to another book called, Paulus: Sein Leben und Wirken (1904), where the author of the first book hastily summarized that a "quire" cost about 20pf. in Rome. What a "pf." means NOBODy knows (they're both Germans, so pfenning?? Surely not). The reference was originally in connection with the Greek silver drachma, but I don't know if that's what the mysterious "20pf." refers to. I looked up the reference to Clemen (p.825, n.2 but I found no note), and after about 30-40 minutes of writing out pre-modern German on google translate (with my almost nonexistent knowledge of German save for a few words), it had practically nothing to do with the citation.
Also, if you happen to know how much something else costs, from any other time (or place), feel free to share, it's much appreciated (e.g. how much a vase cost in Greece, 450 BC, or a horse in India 150 AD), it's just the price of a book in around the 1st century in Rome that seriously interests me.
Thank you