Corpus Christianorum. Symbola Explanationes fidei aevi Carolini,

S. Keefe (ed.);

Published by Turnhout, Brepols, 2012

About this Item

Hardback, 200 p., 165 x 245 mm. ISBN 9782503544069. Thanks to the fame and popularity he attained as a professor of rhetoric in fourth century Rome, C. Marius Victorinus (about 300 - post 362 AD) was awarded a statue in the Forum of Trajan (Jerome, Chron. a. 2370 = 353 AD). His treatises on logic and his translations of Aristotle and Porphyry are lost, but three of the numerous works he wrote before his accession to the Christian community still survive. A handbook on grammar (Ars Grammatica), a treatise on definitions (De definitionibus) are integrally preserved, along with a commentary on Cicero's De Inventione, the role of which as a school handbook was relevant in fourth-century education. This commentary, known under the title Explanationes in Ciceronis Rhetoricam, offers an interesting insight in Victorinus' rhetorical teaching and in his exegetical method, based on the analysis he will later apply to St. Paul's writings. This is closely linked to the Aristotelian logic and deeply rooted in Victorinus' philosophical education, as especially witnessed by the first book of the commentary. Here, the explanation of rhetorical topics through visual and memory cues as the schemes and enumerations often meets the discussion of philosophical notions and problems, though these could seem not immediately useful to the forensic debate. The present volume contains a new edition of Victorinus commentary on Cicero's De Inventione, which appears more than a hundred years after the text published in the volume of the Rhetores Latini Minores (K. Halm, Leipzig 1863). The editor has thoroughly examined the whole manuscript tradition of the commentary, which has come down to us through about forty medieval and humanistic manuscripts. The apparatus is based on six sources, stemming from the VIIth to XVIth century. These offer a good witness of the different branches of the transmission and bear interesting variants. The text itself has also been considered in reference to the Latin language in use in the fourth century AD: therefore, many passages have been modified that Karl Halm had previously corrected according to the usage of classical Latin. Moreover, some short interpolations have been recognized. The comparative study of the Ciceronian entries and the direct tradition of the De Inventione has also shown that the odd text of some entries, corrected by Halm, should actually be preserved, since it stems from the copy used by Marius Victorinus and cannot be labeled as a transmission mistake. The notes following the Latin text discuss the editor's textual choices. The introductory section covers both the history of the reception of the Explanationes and a detailed analysis of the medieval manuscript tradition. Avant de se convertir au Christianisme, le grammairien et philosophe C. Marius Victorinus (ca. 300-post 362 apres JC) joua un tres important role dans l'enseignement de la rhetorique : on apprend par Jerome (Chron. a. 2370 = 353 apres JC) qu'une statue lui fut dediee dans le Forum de Trajan. Etant perdus ses traites de logique et ses traductions latines d'Aristote et Porphyre, seulement trois textes survivent des nombreux oeuvres que Victorinus ecrivit dans la periode paienne de sa vie, notamment un manuel de grammaire (Ars Grammatica), un traite sur les definitions (De definitionibus) et un commentaire aux deux livres de Ciceron De Inventione; avec la Rhetorique a Herennius, ce texte etait tres souvent utilise comme texte scolaire et faisait l'objet de detaillees analyses. Le commentaire, conserve sous le titre Explanationes in Ciceronis Rhetoricam, resume la doctrine rhetorique de Victorinus et reflet la methode didactique et exegetique qu'il appliquera plus tard, bien qu'avec des differences, aux textes de St. Paul. Il s'agit d'une analyse bien liee a la logique d'Aristote, qui se base sur la formation philosophique de l'auteur ; cela est evident en particulier dans le premier livre, ou a l'explication des notions a l'aide de sch.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Corpus Christianorum. Symbola Explanationes fidei aevi Carolini,
• Publisher: Turnhout, Brepols, 2012
• Binding: Hardcover