There are books we read once, and other books that bear rereading. Then there are books we “never cease to read”, as Virgil the Grammarian says.¹ We come to these as churchgoers come to Mass on Sundays, “to dedicate the sacred study of literature to sacred days.”² These are works like Kālidāsa’s Cloud Messenger, or like Vergil’s Aeneid, which Macrobius compares to a temple in urging, “let us not allow the inner sancta of this sacred poem to be concealed, but, having found the entrance to its hidden meanings, let us lay open the penetralia, to be celebrated in the worship of the learned.”³

Liu Yiming writes of the Journey to the West: “Wherever this book resides, there are heavenly deities standing guard over it. The reader should purify his hands and burn incense before reading it, and it should be read with the utmost reverence.”⁴ Zhang Zhupo, on The Plum in the Golden Vase: “The reader of the Chin P’ing Mei should burn fine incense on his desk in order to express his gratitude to the author for creating this literary masterpiece, in all its intricacy, for his enjoyment. The reader of the Chin P’ing Mei should keep fragrant tea on his table as an offering of thanks to the author for his pains.”⁵ This is good advice.

We also read that “Galileo prayed each time he sat down with The Almagest” of Ptolemy, perhaps reciting Psalm 145, which he had written out in his copy.⁶ I would rather place Plethon’s Prayer to the Rational Gods at the beginning of every manuscript: “Come, o rational gods, whoever and however many you are, who govern true knowledges and opinions, and bestow it on whom you wish, according to the designs of the great father and king of all, Zeus. For without you, we would be unable to complete so great a work. But guide these our reasonings, and grant that this work be entirely successful, a possession available for all times to those people who wish to live their lives in the best and noblest way, in pivate as well as in public.”⁷

Notes
(1) Virgilius Maro Grammaticus, Epistola III de verbo, p. 50 (ed. Löfstedt): Sed nos sic dicimus, quod hic legat qui potest saltim litteras dicere; lectet autem qui quod legit intellegere incipit; legitet vero qui quod legit intellegere incipit; legitet vero qui quod legit intelligit ‹et› alios legere facit tradendo in artem scribendi quae legendi asuetudine didicerit; porro lectitet qui omnino legere non desinit.
(2) Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, Saturnalia 1.7.8 (ed. Kaster): Nam si per sacra sollemnia rivos deducere religio nulla prohibebit, si salubri  fluvio mersare oves fas et iura permittunt, cur non religionis honor putetur dicare sacris diebus sacrum studium litterarum?
(3) Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, Saturnalia 1.24.13 (ed. Kaster): non patiamur abstrusa esse adyta sacri poematis sed arcanorum sensuum investigato aditu doctorum cultu celebranda praebeamus reclusa penetralia.
(4) Liu Yiming (刘一明), The Original Intent of the Journey to the West (西遊原旨) 1, as translated by Anthony C. Yu, in David L. Rolston (ed.), How to Read the Chinese Novel, Princeton University Press 1990, p. 299.
(5) Zhang Zhupo (張竹坡), How to Read the Chin P’ing Mei [Jin Ping Mei] (第一奇書金瓶梅) 98–99, as translated by David T. Roy, in David L. Rolston (ed.), How to Read the Chinese Novel, Princeton University Press 1990, p. 241.
(6) “Galileo’s handwritten notes found in ancient astronomy text”, in: Science (URL: https://www.science.org/content/article/galileo-s-handwritten-notes-found-ancient-astronomy-text), reporting on Ivan Malara’s ongoing research.
(7) Plethon, On the Laws 1.4 (ed. ):  Ἄγετε δὴ, ὦ θεοὶ λόγιοι, οἵτινές τε καὶ ὅσοι ἐστὲ, οἳ ἐπιστήμας τε καὶ δόξας ἀληθεῖς ἐπιτροπεύετε, νέμετέ τε οἷςπερ ἂν ἐθέλητε κατὰ τοῦ μεγάλου πατρὸς τῶν τε πάντων βασιλέως Διὸς βουλάς. Οὐ γάρ τοι ἄνευ ὑμῶν οἷοί τ’ ἂν ἡμεῖς εἴημεν ἔργον ἀνύσαι τηλικοῦτον. Ἀλλ’ ὑμεῖς ἡμῖν τῶνδε τῶν λόγων ἡγήσασθέ τε, καὶ δότε τήνδε τὴν συγγραφὴν ὡς ἐπιτυχεστάτην γενέσθαι, κτῆμα ἀεὶ προκεισομένην τῶν ἀνθρώπων τοῖς ἐθέλουσιν ἂν καὶ ἰδίᾳ καὶ κοινῇ τὸν αὐτῶν βίον ὡς κάλλιστά τε καὶ ἄριστα καθισταμένοις ζῆν.