Abstract

Antonio Stramaglia An International Project On The Pseudo-Quintilianic Declamationes Majores I n 1999 the University of Cassino launched a research project1 on one of the most neglected fields of ancient Roman culture: the nineteen so-called Major Declamations falsely ascribed to Quintilian, the sole fictitious forensic speeches (controversiae) that classical Latin antiquity has handed down to us in their entirety.2 The aims of the project were (and still are, as the enterprise is in progress): 1) a thorough revision of the text of the Maiores; 2) a re-edition of as many speeches as possible in individual volumes containing a critically revised Latin text, a translation, and a detailed commentary; 3) a fresh investigation of these texts both from a rhetorical and from a literary-historical point of view. The project soon acquired international dimensions: whereas subventions from public institutions gradually decreased, the num1PRIN 1999: "Le Declamazioni maggiori dello Pseudo-Quintiliano," co-hnanced by the University of Cassino and by the Italian Ministry of University. Funding for the project has been subsequently applied for (with varying success) in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007; the'project has been coordinated in its various phases either by myself or by Oronzo Pecere (Cassino). Standard edition: L. Hakanson, ed., Declamationes XIX maiores Quintiliano falso ascriptae (Stutgardiae: Teubner, 1982). For a recent survey (with bibliography) see my article cited in n. 4 below. Rhetorica, Vol. XXVII, Issue 3, pp. 237-239, ISSN 0734-8584, electronic ISSN 15338541 . ©2009 by The International Society for the History of Rhetoric. All rights re­ served. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's Rights and Permissions website, at http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintlnfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/RH.2009.27.3.237. 238 RHETORICA ber of collaborators joining from all over the res publica litterarum constantly increased, so that the group now counts thirteen mem­ bers from seven different countries.3 Nine years after the launch, the results attained for each of the project's goals can be summarized as follows: 1) the textual revision of the Maiores (entailing both reconstruction of textual history and constitutio textus) has reached an advanced stage;4 5 6 7 the present writer will publish the revised text, together with a com­ plete annotated Italian translation, in the "Classici Latini UTET" (Turin) collection; 2) a special collection of commentaries has been issued by Cassino University Press (Edizioni delPUniversita degli Studi di Cassino); each volume is thoroughly revised by one or two other members of the group, before being given its imprimatur. Seven volumes have appeared so far; one more is scheduled to be despatched to the press during 2009;b others are in preparation;' 3) a considerable number of monographs and articles by members of our group have elucidated the Declamationes maiores both within the context 3Bé Breij (Nijmegen); Graziana Brescia (Foggia); Nicola HtSmke (Rostock); Gernot Krapinger (Graz); Giovanna Longo (Bari/Cassino); Lucia Pasetti (Bologna); Oronzo Pecere (Cassino); Catherine Schneider (Strasbourg); Antonio Stramaglia (Cassino); Marc van der Poel (Nijmegen); Danielle van Mal-Maeder (Lausanne); Michael Winterbottom (Oxford); Thomas Zinsmaier (Tübingen). 4See meanwhile: C. Schneider, "Quelques réflexions sur la date de publication des Grandes déclamations pseudo-quintiliennes," Latomus 59 (2000): 614-632; A. Stra­ maglia, Le Declamationes maiores pseudo-quintilianee: genesi di una raccolta declaniatoria e fisionomia della sua trastnissione testuale, in E. Amato, ed., Approches de la Troisième Sophistique. Hommages a ]. Schamp (Bruxelles: Latomus, 2006): 555-588. 5A. Stramaglia, [Quintiliano]. I gemelli malati: un caso di vivisczione (Declamazioni maggiori, 8) (Cassino: Edizioni dell'Università degli Studi di Cassino, 1999); ld., [Quintiliano]. La città che si cibà dei suoi cadaveri (Declamazioni maggiori, 22) (Cassino: Edizioni dell'Università degli Studi di Cassino, 2002); C. Schneider, [Quintilien]. Le sol­ dat de Marins (Grandes déclamations, 3) (Cassino: Edizioni dell'Università degli Studi di Cassino, 2004); G. Krapinger, [Quintilian]. Die Bienen des armeu Mannes (GrôPere Deklamationen, 13) (Cassino: Edizioni dell'Università degli Studi di Cassino, 2005); Id., [Quintilian]. Der Gladiator (Grôfiere Deklamationen, 9) (Cassino: Edizioni dell'Uni­ versità degli Studi di Cassino, 2007); G. Longo, [Quintiliano]. La pozionedell'odio (Decla­ mazioni maggiori), 14-15) (Cassino: Edizioni dell'Università degli...