Abstract

Reviews 111 of unusual breadth. The book transforms our understanding of Dionysius and his intellectual context. Malcolm Heath University ofLeeds Romani Aqnilae de Figuris, introduzione, testo critico, traduzione e commento a cura di Martina Elice, Hildesheim: Olms, 2007. ccx + 243 pp. ISBN 348713473X Until recently, being one of the rhetores latini minores meant being known only among specialists, not appearing in electronic databases, and having no proper place on the shelves in the libraries. But especially in Italy scholars have begun to pay them the attention they deserve with new editions that often include commentary and translation, for example Lucia Calboli Montefusco's work on Fortunatianus or Squillante's work on the carmen de figuris. In Germany, with great acumen Ulrich Schindel has examined the interdependence of the schemata dianoeas (Anonymus Ecksteinii) with other treatises on the rhetorical figures, such as those by Martianus Capella, Cassiodorus, and Aquila Romanus (Anonymus Ecksteinii. Schemata dianoeas quae ad rhetores pertinent, Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, I. Philologisch-historische Klasse 7 (1987), 107-73). Now Martina Elice has provided Aquila Romanus with a place on the shelf, by offering an accurate edition with an extensive introduction, translation, and very detailed commentary. In the introduction, E. first presents scant notices about the author (I. L'autore XXXI-LII), then she describes the work's content and structure (II. Contenuto e struttura dell'opera LIII-LXII) and its place in the rhetorical tra­ dition with regard to both its sources and its "Fortleben." Because Aquila Ro­ manus is a school-author, attempts to stabilize relationships between the sin­ gle treatises are undermined by the constant background noise of the school lore, in which examples and definitions circulated freely. One can often detect affinities but no certain stemma (LXXXII). Thus E.'s description of Aquila's sources becomes an overview of Aquila's "Mituberlieferung," which under­ lines the connection of the single treatises on figures (§26, LXXXV). This leads to the question of whether there was a common source represented by Caecilius of Cale Acte (U. Schindel, Die Rezeption der hellenistischen Theorie der Figuren bei den Romern, Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen Philologisch-historische Klasse 3. Folge, Band 243 (2001)). Fun­ damentally E. follows Schindel's view. But with regard to Martianus Capella (III.2 Da Aquila a Marziano Capella LXXXIX-CXV), E. seems to suppose a direct descent from Aquila (CXV). In Chapter III.3, E. examines the relationship to the schemata dianoeas (edited and commented on thoroughly by Schindel, who calls them Anony- 112 RHETORICA mus Ecksteinii), though her focus shifts toward the end of the chapter. Rather she exploits the comparison in order to take into account again Aquila's way of using his main ("Leitquelle") and secondary sources. Chapter IV is dedicated to the manuscript tradition. Of the seventeen known manuscripts E. employs, the Casanatense (9th century) is especially worthy of our attention, because it contains many readings that actually improve the text, which had been based until now on the known humanistic manuscripts. After an overview of the modern editions of the text in Chapter V, in Chapter VI E. documents the observations that led her to the formulation of the stemma on p. CCIX. E. carefully corroborates the whole introduction with extensive quota­ tions and thoroughgoing analysis of important passages. The single para­ graphs are numbered, so the commentary can easily refer the reader to them. E's text is based on the examination of all seventeen known manuscripts. She has made the critical apparatus more readable by relegating an extensive list of conjectures by many scholars to an appendix. E. does the user a great service by providing a beautifully readable but precise translation. Special care has been put into rendering the ubiquitous metaphors in the Latin text. The most useful part of the book is without any doubt represented by the detailed commentary. With every figure, E. treats synonyms and variants in the definitions, and provides numerous parallels. Often commentaries tend to forget the text they comment on and only rearrange material from the rhetorical handbooks. E.'s commentary keeps its focus and still can serve as a handbook. A virtue of this commentary compared...