Quintilian in the Late Middle Ages

Abstract

WHO read Quintilian in the Middle Ages? Nine out of ten scholars probably did not. Yet it is interesting to examine the line of scholars who did study Quintilian and to inquire how and why they established this acquaintance. The transmission of Quintilian through the Middle Ages consequently has had its share of probings by French, English, and German scholars;' but another attempt will not be unjustified, especially when the approach has been made from a previously neglected angle: the mediaevalflorilegia.2 A study of the Quintilian excerpts found in three mediaeval florilegia went far beyond my first intentions of merely transcribing the fiores and determining the family stemma.3 Before the study had been completed, the Quintilian tradition in the Middle Ages had been retraced to discover if by any chance scholars of the ninth-fifteenth centuries had the fiores by their side instead of the complete text. Such inquiry brought forth new light on certain aspects of the Quintilian tradition in the late Middle Ages. This paper will deal only with specific details of the question which seem to be of wider interest. For example, did John of Salisbury, the twelfth-century humanist, actually have access to a complete manuscript of Quintilian? From which florilegium did Vincent of Beauvais draw the Quintilian quotations for his Speculum maius? Can we add any new names to the roster of fourteenty-century scholars who may have had access to our author? Finally, can the Florentine scholar, Poggio Bracciolini, be credited with the discovery of the complete text of Quintilian, or does the credit lie with Nicolas de Clekmanges twenty years earlier? Until the ninth century Quintilian underwent the usual vicissitudes peculiar to classical authors. It has been recently shown by Paul Lehmann that the ninth century marks a decided revival in the interest in Quintilian.4 For it is from this century that the important Quintilian manuscripts are now dated. It is important to state that by the ninth century the manuscripts fall into several classes. The complete textual tradition existed in Germany. In France, on the other hand, manuscripts circulated which lacked large portions, especially Books V-VIII, IX-XI, and a good part of XII. These manuscripts have consequently been denominated the mutili.5 Such a mutilus was in the hands of Lupus of Ferrieres, who diligently searched for a complete Quintilian. Lupus inquired first of Altzigus of York6 and from this request the guess has been hazarded that England had a complete Quintilian; however, Lupus may only have made a hopeful inquiry. Later we find him again requesting the complete text from Pope Benedict III (855-858). Since this request describes the volume,7 it is clear that Lupus knew the pope possessed such a book; that he did not send it to Lupus is perhaps indicated by the fact that the mutilated version remained in circulation from approximately this time until the discovery of a complete text by the humanists in the fifteenth century.8 By the twelfth century probably earlier there had developed still another tradition closely connected with the mutili family, but certain portions of Books