(A.A.) Raschieri Lettura degli autori e insegnamento retorico. Ricerche intorno a Quintiliano e alla retorica antica. Pp. 216. Canterano: Aracne, 2020. Paper, €12. ISBN: 978-88-255-3527-3.

Abstract

This volume collects the most significant outcomes of the research carried out by the author over the last six years, in the form of four essays sharing a focus on Quintilian and rhetorical education in the Roman imperial age. The first chapter addresses Institutio oratoria 2.17–21, in which Quintilian lays out his own concept of rhetoric as a profession: R. accounts for Quintilian’s view of the role of the teacher of rhetoric, intended not just as a technician of the word, but as a scholar who bases his pedagogical method on study and research, setting a moral example for his students and serving as the director of the education of the future orator in all the disciplines of what we would call the liberal arts. In the second chapter R. offers useful reflections on the broad topic of the presence of beauty in rhetorical theory, accounting for both the Greek and the Roman theoretical tradition. R.’s survey of this topic touches upon the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, Dionysus of Halicarnassus and On the Sublime; compared to the Greek speculation, the Roman tradition appears to be more interested in assessing virtues and vices of speeches rather than in discussing beauty per se. Due to the pervasive presence of rhetoric in Roman education, such reflection on beauty was not bound to remain just a topic for speculation: R. looks at some passages from Cicero, Valerius Maximus and Quintilian, so as to show some practical fallout of the theoretical tradition in literary practice. A variety of research ideas, interesting yet not immediately connected to each other, are gathered in the third chapter. The first part focuses mostly on Institutio 10, assessing how Quintilian’s reflection on the authors of the past leads to the formation of a canon of authors and works suitable for schools; the second part turns to the role of translation and other exercises based on textual transformation in the educational programme envisaged by Quintilian; the final section shifts attention to enargeia, focusing on the techniques of evidentia favoured by Cicero and Quintilian in their description of narratio. Finally, the fourth and largest chapter takes the reader back to Quintilian’s Book 10, focusing on its famous canon of authors. R. accounts for the role of this excursus within the overall structure of the Institutio; he then moves on to analyse the concept of facilitas, which is both the starting point and the purpose of Quintilian’s survey; finally, the very construction of this list is taken into account, with particular attention to the method leading Quintilian’s selection and exposition of material. This volume offers a clear introduction to a number of specific topics within the field of rhetorical teaching, its theoretical background and its influence on the culture of the Roman imperial age; it is recommended for any scholar approaching the inexhaustible wealth of research paths arising from the educational programme expounded by Quintilian.