Quintiliano - Quintiliani Declamationes - 1665

Declamationes cum Variorum Notis (M. Fab. Quintiliani Declamationes Undeviginti. M. Fabii Avi et Calpurnii Flacci Declamationes. Auctoris Incerti Dialogus De causis Corruptae Eloquentiae. Cum Variorum Notis) (and below is reported Tomus II - perhaps a printing error).
Subtitle [with:] Institutiones Oratoriae (M. Fabii Quintiliani Institutionum Oratoriarum. Libri Duodecim. Summa diligentia ad fidem vetustissimorum codicum regogniti ac restituti. Accesserunt huic renovatae editioni. Declamationes, quae tam ex P. Pithoei, J. C. Clarissimi, quam aliorum Bibliothecis & editionibus colligi potuerunt. Cum Turnebi, Camerarii, Parei, Gronovii, & Aliorum Notis. Cum Indice locupletissimo, tam in Textum, quam Notas).

Two volumes in two 8vo volumes (cm 12.5 x 20.5). Leiden–batavian and Rotterdam, Ex Officina Hackiana, 1665. First volume, the “Declamationes”: antip. finely engraved by p. p. (“R. a Perlyn fe”.), frontispiece with typographic mark with an eagle and the motto “Movendo”, pp. 784 + 7 (Index) + 1 blank; Second volume, the “Institutiones Oratoriae”: antip. finely engraved by p. p., frontispiece with typographic mark with an eagle and the motto “Movendo”, pages 28 with Preface of Angelo Poliziano and Dedication Epistle to D. Petro Castellano, 916 + 30 (Index) + 2 blanks. Both volumes have old bindings in full rigid parchment with title and volume number handwritten on the spine. A usual and physiological yellowing of the pages but specimens in solid binding, printed on good paper and with a good impression. It should be noted that tradition attributes to Quintilian two collections of “Declamationes” (the 19 Majores, of certain authorship by the Author, well developed, whose themes are fully worked out, and here contained in Volume I together with the uncertain dialogue “De causis Corruptae Eloquentiae”; and the 338 Minores, of which only 145 have reached us, often in draft form, and here contained in Volume II together with the “Institutio Oratoria”); of these only some could date back to Quintilian, while the others, especially the numerous “Minori,” were certainly the work of a school, probably Quintilian’s own school (there is talk of “Declinationes pseudo-quintilianee”). Here we therefore present two sextets related to the greatest treatise on rhetoric of ancient Rome, the “Institutio Oratoria,” to what can be reconstructed, the “De causis corruptae Eloquentiae,” and to what remains of Quintilian’s other works, the “Declamationes.” Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (30–40 AD) was a teacher of rhetoric and had among his students Pliny the Younger. The exact date of Quintilian’s death is not known, but it is presumed not long after the end of the Flavian era. After twenty years of teaching he decided to leave the office and dedicated himself to composing a dialogue in which he set forth his stance on the growing corruption of the art of eloquence. Quintilian wrote first the treatise “De causis corruptae eloquentiae” and then the “Institutio oratoria.” The “De causis corruptae eloquentiae” remains lost and we could not attempt to reconstruct its content except for the line of thought the author expresses in his greater work, the “Institutio oratoria.” In the first century AD the problem of “great oratory”—the eloquence that had made the Roman Senate’s aula famous in Cicero’s time—was a matter of concern for Latin literary figures. The positions of Latin writers on the causes of the decline of eloquence rested on two fundamental motivations: on the one hand, the schools, which had lost their capacity to teach due to a lack of adequate teachers; consequently the quality level they guaranteed had fallen so low that young people were no longer prepared as in the past and therefore could no longer compete with models of the great masters of the past. On the other hand, the political context had changed: in Cicero’s time important decisions were taken by the Senate after a democratic discussion in which everyone had to assert their position against opponents. Instead, in the present time, republican liberties had vanished and all major decisions were taken by the emperor and his court; consequently the very need for good orators had disappeared. The first line of thought can be traced precisely to Quintilian, who was chosen by the Flavians to carry out what could be modernly defined as a radical reform of the state school (school system, programs, teaching, pedagogical lines) and this is precisely testified by the “Institutio oratoria.” The second, instead, is associated with Tacitus, as evidenced by his “Dialogo de Oratoribus.” The “Institutio oratoria” was composed between about 90 and 96 AD and is a treatise divided into twelve books dedicated to Marcus Aurelius, a famous figure at Domitian’s court. The treatise combines the fruits of Quintilian’s teaching experience with his doctrine, in line with Cicero’s thinking regarding rhetoric as a science that must train the citizen and the morally exemplary man. Cicero represents for Quintilian the culmination and model of Roman oratory, and Quintilian presents the “great oratory” of the Roman Senate Aula, now forgotten. In it the author cites Greek and Latin sources, discusses the positions of predecessors with calm judgment, poses problems clearly, and develops the discussion in a discursive tone. In this sense the “Institutio oratoria” can be regarded as a summa of ancient rhetoric, precisely because it can be read as a collection of material that preserved the acquisitions of the science and technique of communication and persuasion, carrying with it clear implications regarding the historical-cultural conditions in which it is placed, in particular with regard to two problems: the changed function of the orator in civil society and the new stylistic tendencies. And here both problems are to be traced back to the corruption of eloquence and thus to its decay, with causes in technical and moral factors.
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (Garding, 1817 - Charlottenburg, 1903), German historian, numismatist, jurist, epigrapher and philologist, generally considered the greatest classicist of the 19th century, wrote about the work: “It is one of the most excellent works we possess of ancient Rome, inspired by good taste and sound judgment, simple in its meaning and composition, instructive without pedantry, attractive without the need for personal exertion, in deliberate contrast with the empty and mannered literature of the time.”