QUINTILIANUS, M. FABIUS. - [INCUNABLUM, READ AND ANNOTATED BY THE 16TH CENT. MASTER, AUGUSTINO PISTOIA]
(Oratoriarum institutionum libri duodecimi & ultimi [printed on colophon], [according to Brunet: recogniti per And. Pantiam]).
(Treviso, Dionysius Bononiensis & Peregrinus Bononiensis, 1482 [on colophon: Impressum taruisii per magistrum Dionysium Bononiensem ac Peregrinum eius socium. Anno D.M.CCC. LXXXII. DIE XXII. mensis octobris]). Small folio. Recently bound in a very nice hvellum, made of old parchment, w. gilt red leather title-label to back and six raised bands. All edges red. Internally nice, w. some occasional soiling and signs of wear. Some small wormholes to last leaves, mostly marginal. Annotated throughout in 16th cent. hand, w. large and small illustr. initials in ink as well as marginal illustrations in ink, all in the same 16th cent. hand, which is that of Augustino Pistoia, who, on blank verso of final leaf, has drawn a portrait of himself and written the date of his finishing reading the book as well as the master under whom he has read it ("À di 20 di Otbr. [?] 1583 io Augostino/ Pistoia hò letto questo libro di Quin-/ tiliano sotto la disciplina del/ mag.io Pompeo Gilante mio maestro/ 1583 1584." (Italian - translates as thus: "On the 20th of October [?] 1583 I Augostino/ Pistoia have read this book by Quin-/ tiliano under the teaching of/ mag. Pompeo Gilante my master/ 1583 1584."). On the colophon-leaf he has drawn a more elaborated version of his self-portrait, in which he is holding a stick w. his own head on top. In the forehead of the drawing he has written his name, "Augustino Pistoia" very neatly. Some of the marginal notes have been cut. (144 ff. = a1-(8) - r1-(8) + (s1-3), by Augustino Pistoia numbered in ink from the beginning till about the middle as LIV - CXIV, the rest of the leaves w. remains of ink-numberings in Arabic numbers to upper right corners).
¶ The very rare Tarvisio-edition of Quintilian's rhetorical main work, -one of the greatest rhetorical textbooks of the Renaissance, printed on October 22nd 1482.
Quintilian's "Declamationes" is believed also to have been printed the same year in Tarvisio by Bononiensis; it takes up 53 leaves, and has probably been bound with this copy of the "Oratoriarum Institutionum" at some point, as the first leaf of this is numbered as folio 54 in 16th century hand. The works constitute two different ones, and the 1482 Tarvisio-printings of them are considered two separate printings. The "Declamationes" appeared without date. "Les declamations finissent au recto du 53e f. par le mot FINIS, et comme la subscription et le registre sont placés au verso du 190e et dernier f., lorsque cette première partie (Declamationes) est séparée de la seconde, elle paraît être sans date." (Brunet IV:1024). According to Graesse it is generally believed that the Declamationes is from the same press as the Oratoriarum, but this is not evident from the colophon. "On y ajoute ordinairement l'édit. Des "Declam." Sortie des mêmes presses, mais non annoncée dans le registre des cah." (Graesse V:528). The two works are definitely not parts of the same print (note also that the Oratoriarum is foliated from a1). The Declamationes is less rare than the Oratoriarum, though both are scarce.
This copy has belonged to the Italian scholar of the 16th century, Augustino Pistoia (Agostino da Pistoia), who was a master of a certain name in 16th century Italian scholarship. He was well known in his day, and apparently appreciated to such an extent as to deserve verses to be written about him by other fellow scholars. These verses are still extant, and are copied in a Florentine manuscript of the late 16th century. The manuscript is described by Kristeller: "Acquisti e Doni 35. cart. XVI in 162 fols. Thomas Baldinoctus, carmina. Include verses to Hier Zauretta [...] on Augustinus Pistoriensis [...]." (Kristeller, Iter italicum", vol. I). Augustine from Pistoia has evidently read this main work of Renaissance humanism very well, as he has annotated it throughout, and written the date of his completion of the reading of the work (1583/ 1584). He has drawn and illustrated numerous initials himself, as he has also drawn marginal illustrations in the book. The portraits he has drawn of himself on the final leaves are quite large (about half-page), and are meant to be a sort of elaborate owner's signature, which almost precede a proper bookplate. In his hand he holds a stick with a drawing of his own head on top of it, which is probably meant to indicate that what goes on in the head, is carried out by the hand. -There is a direct connection between the hand and the head, -a very actual notion in this case, in which most of Augustinus' thoughts when reading the work have been passed on to the margins of the book through his hand. Here we thus have a rare and excellent example of how 16th century Italian scholarship was carried out, and what was thought to be most important when reading a classical text.
"If we understand by the Renaissance the period that runs roughly from 1350 to 1600, we find that rhetoric during this era occupied a broader and more important place than during the Middle Ages. In the Renaissance, rhetoric expanded and developed greatly, and came to pervade all areas of civilization, as it had not been the case during the preceding Centuries (Kristeller. Renaissance Thought and its Sources, p. 242).
Quintilian (ca. 35-95 A.D.) is one of the greatest Roman rhetoricians. He began writing his main work, the "Oratoriarum institutionum" in about 88 A.D., and his complete text was only recorded during the early 15th century, -the same century that the text was printed. Quintilianus was barely known during the Middle Ages, and only the Renaissance, with its humanists and interest in manuscripts containing classical texts as well as interest in other classical writers than primarily Aristotle, discovered the text of the great rhetorician and accepted him as a master, who thus became immensely influential in this period. The invention of printing was obviously of seminal importance to the spreading of classical texts, and the rhetorical discipline as well as the knowledge of authors such as Quintilianus greatly benefited from this new way of making texts more generally known, which dominated the last half of the 15th century. The incunabula-editions of the works of writers such as Quintilianus are very important to the textual history of these writings, which had only just begun to attract attention during the Renaissance.
The Renaissance humanists of course also began producing rhetorical texts of their own, but we may still assume that the instruction was based on ancient treatises and on the use of classical models; -it still remains to examine to what extent exactly the Renaissance humanists repeated ancient theories and models, and how much was their own making.
Rhetoric occupied a central role in the Renaissance, and from the 15th century onwards there is practically not a discipline or part of society that was not under influence from it.
"The ideal of the broadly educated, literary and philosophical orator as Cicero tried to promote it in his mature rhetorical writings found an echo in later Roman rhetorical writers, and especially in Quintilian and Tacitus." (Kristeller, Renaissance Thought and its Sources, p. 223). Rhetoric was to the ancient Roman world what philosophy was to the ancient Greek world. In the Roman Empire there was a dense network of schools of rhetoric, and they served as the only form of higher education available beyond the level of grammar school. They offered rhetorical and literary education that was found appropriate learning for lawyers, administrators and public officials to be. Rhetoric came to play a great role at the universities in the Renaissance, and one of the main textbooks was that of Quintilianus.
Graesse V:528, Brunet IV:1024, Hain 13661.
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