A twelve-volume textbook on the theory and practice of rhetoric

Originally published in 1924, this book contains the Latin text of the first book of Quintillian's Institutionis Oratoriae. Quintillian's work on oratorical principles was much respected during the revival of Classical learning in the Renaissance, but largely forgotten subsequently. Colson supplies a detailed exegetical commentary, as well as a thorough history of the composition of Quintillian's work and its transmission through the ages. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in ancient oratory or in this long-neglected text.

Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Socrates, edited by Christopher Moore, provides almost unbroken coverage, across three-dozen studies, of 2450 years of philosophical and literary engagement with Socrates – the singular Athenian intellectual, paradigm of moral discipline, and inspiration for millennia of philosophical, rhetorical, and dramatic composition. Following an Introduction reflecting on the essentially “receptive” nature of Socrates’ influence (by contrast to Plato’s), chapters address the uptake of Socrates by authors in the Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, Late Antique (including Latin Christian, Syriac, and Arabic), Medieval (including Byzantine), Renaissance, Early Modern, Late Modern, and Twentieth-Century periods. Together they reveal the continuity of Socrates’ idiosyncratic, polyvalent, and deep imprint on the history of Western thought, and witness the value of further research in the reception of Socrates.