Posted 13 years ago
mikez
(1 item)
This book has been in my family for years. It was hidden away in a box for who knows how long.
It was difficult finding any info on this.... any info would be helpful!
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Just the idea of holding a book of that age is inspiring. here is a place to start your research. Thanks for sharing...
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=M.+FABII&sortby=1&x=0&y=0
I would suggest finding someone in your area who reads Latin (A Preist?) or maybe your local college library....... Trying for the long ball here..
My father when he was in high school and college learned Latin. When he was younger he tried to read it. He told me that he was unable to read most of it, either because he was not in Latin, or it was some obscure form of Latin.... it is indeed an interesting book!
Or just use Google Translate http://translate.google.com/
this should work...
http://books.google.com/books/about/M_Fabii_Qvintiliani_rhetoris_clarissimi.html?id=CCorGwAACAAJ
Seems to be a book on ancient oratory and ancient rhetoric. Happy reading!
Think in terms of four figures.... if it is complete and in reasonable condition. You have a bit of treasure there!
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=quintilian&sortby=1&x=0&y=0
A catholic priest should be able to help you.
And keep in mind that rhetoric & oratory were considered two of the primary building blocks of the classical 'basic' education as recently as the mid-20th Century where Latin was still taught in high schools and considered preferable to any other language despite it's 'dead' (as in no longer spoken) status. And the author was looked on as a master in the art dating back to the Forum of Rome.
This book represented what was, until relatively recently, considered to be essential information ~ and you have one of the original source books from nearly the dawn of Guttenburg's invention of the printing press!
Regretably, the shelf life (excuse the phrase) of these classics is too-rapidly reaching expiration date. If this were mine and the condition was of sufficient quality, I would be contacting one of the better auction houses with an eye on selling it sooner rather than later. One more generation and I can see almost no interest in it remaining. Reminds me of that scene in "The Time Machine" when Rod Taylor finds a library far in the future filled with books turning to dust, ignored by the Eloi who inherited all the wisdom of mankind, but under the tyrany of fear imposed by the Morlocks, had lost the intellectual curiosity to use it.
Sorry to go off on this rant. Some things are just sad.
The authors of the book are :
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus aka Quintilian.
It was written by him around AD 95.
It's the only extant work by this author.
In 1536 it was reworked and added to by the other authors mentioned :
Joachim Camerarius; Johann Sichard; Guillaume Philandrier
The work was published a series of times and added to by various scholars. In this case it was the turn of Jacb Hertel to add his own reading of the text and he added an index.
The copy you have was published in Basel in 1568.
This was an influential book in its time in Ancient Rome and later during the Renaissance. Its a collection of twelve books on how to educate a powerful political speaker.
The title in English is "the Institutes of Oratory".
This work deals not only with the theory and practice of rhetoric, but also with the foundational education and development of the orator himself, providing advice that ran from the cradle to the grave.
Some things endure. This book has nearly two thousand years of history. It was ignored and found again. Some ideas are lost and some remain.
Vetraio50, you are part of what is best about CW. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
I agree. I have learned so much from your comments. Thank you!
And thanks too to mikez for cleaning up the page!
Wow, well you guys certainly answered just about every question I had on this book!
I have started to learn how this book came into my families possession. It may have been in my family for a few hundred years, brought to the USA from my great, great grand parents from Germany. Apparently they were involved in politics, my great great grandfather was an ambassador to the USA.
We have boxes and boxes of antiques, I will indeed be posting a few of them on this site to share!
Parting with that book may be a tough decision, worth money.... probably. but it may have also been in the family for quite some time. But then again, like was stated earlier, it's shelf life may be coming close to an end. I'm sure there are some people that would love to read this and perhaps preserve it much better then I can. Tough decision to ponder.... :)
Google translate is still a bit iffy, (perhaps more than a bit).
But there is a fine tool called Latin Word Study @ :http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=annotationibus&la=la
At school Latin was my favored subject.
Classical Latin was taught badly for generations by people who only had a basic knowlege of it. I was fortunate in having a wonderful nun called Regis who filled in many of the gaps.
Most of what I've seen on the front page of the text is pretty clear to me though there were a few words that I needed to look up using the Latin Word Study Tool.
Latin changed over time too and for generations it was an international language that knew no political boundaries much like English today.
Hooray mikez for bringing us back to what this site is all about not just Dollars and Cents.......thanks mike !
Mike, if it were mine, and please forgive me for butting in, but if it were mine, I would take it to a library or museum. They would probably have more information on the book and it's worth (not monetary value, but it's worth) and if it is as important a book as we may suspect, you should probably loan it to them for display or study. They would keep it in a controlled environment, to safeguard it.
I don't agree about the shelflife. Once these book reaches a certain age, they remain as important as they are now.
But please, have an expert take a look at it. And don't forget to share the rest of the antiques you have in those boxes!!! :)
Loaning for display and/or study is a great idea!
I'll be happy to share the antiques in my collection as well. I will post more items soon.... there are quite a few! :)
I believe there is a Copy at uni of Illinois
http://vufind.carli.illinois.edu/vf-uiu/Record/uiu_1996524/Description
Just noticed this book some pen marks in the front and back of the book. The front looks like initials, the back is something written in the language of the book. Would be interesting to find out who actually 1st owned the book!
Put up a photo of the marks and you never know!
By the way the Illinois university library site has the proper bibliographical description of the book: title, authors etc even down to the page size.
Good luck with it.