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Quintilian
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Quintilian was the celebrated orator and rhetorician from the first century who brought forward rhetorical theory from ancient Greece and from the heyday of Roman rhetoric in the prior century. This theory he compiled in his Institutio Oratoria, an exhaustive and pedagogically oriented treatement of rhetoric in twelve books. Many later rhetoricians, especially from the Renaissance, derived their rhetorical theory directly from this text.
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The only extant work of Quintilian is a twelve-volume textbook on rhetoric entitled Institutio Oratoria. This work deals not only with the theory and practice of rhetoric, but ... with the foundational education and development of the orator himself. An earlier text, De Causis Corruptae Eloquentiae ("On the Causes of Corrupted Eloquence") has been lost, but is believed to have been "a preliminary exposition of some of the views later set forth in [Institutio Oratoria]" (Kennedy, 24).
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In Quintilian's teaching, the voice and body are shaped by the emotional values of the piece in performance. Sound and movement are keys to what the speaker is experiencing himself. An audience will be able to determine degrees of sincerity and insincerity by listening to the tone of the voice and by watching the speaker's movement. "For the voice is the index of the mind and is capable of expressing all varieties of feeling" (277). Gesture is adapted to suit the voice, though movements are ... full of meaning (279). Quintilian insists on integration between voice and movement.
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Quintilian was not only a successful trial lawyer, he was a highly respected teacher and a writer of no mean skill. He put together a twelve book work on oratory which deals with all aspects of oratory, from the beginning of elementary education to the qualities of the polished orator. No other ancient author on rhetoric had such a prolific output of didactic material. Cicero may have published more, but the bulk of his rhetorical output was the publication of his more celebrated speeches.
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In Quintilian’s time, rhetoric was primarily composed of three aspects: the theoretical, the educational, and the practical. Institutio Oratoria does not claim originality; Quintilian drew from a number of sources in compiling his work. This eclecticism ... prevented him from adhering too rigidly to any particular school of thought on the matter, although Cicero stands out among the other sources. Quintilian also refused any short, simple lists of rules; he evidently felt that the study and art of rhetoric could not be so reduced. This might explain the length of Institutio Oratoria, which consists of twelve books.
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Additionally, Logie points out that Quintilian makes a number of proprietary claims throughout the work. In the opening chapters, he notes that pirated editions of his work are on the market. He asserts his right to determine whether or not his work should be published and which editions should remain in circulation.
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Quintilian