Quintilian: Institutes of Oratory
12/10/2016
The Institutes of Oratory (Latin: Institutio Oratoria) is a treatise by Quintilian on the education of an orator. The earliest books consider a child's earliest schooling and entry into rhetorical training. Books 3-7 to consider the technical details of the subject while books 8 to 11 deal with style and delivery. Book 10 is notable for a discussion of the whole of Greek and Latin literature, considered from the rhetorician's point of view. Book 12 concludes the work with a picture of the ideal orator as Cato's 'vir bonus dicendi peritus', a good man who knows how to speak.
Quintilian, a Spanish-born teacher of rhetoric who benefited from the patronage of several emperors, published the Institutes about 95 CE. Pliny the Younger was among his pupils.
The Institutes of Oratory at online stores
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Free online texts
Biblioteca Augustana: Institutionis oratoriae libri duodecim. Latin text, HTML format.
Eserver/Internet Archive: Institutes of Oratory, translated by John Selby Watson. HTML format with additional secondary resources edited by Lee Honeycutt.
Gutenberg: M. Fabi Quintiliani institutionis oratoriae liber decimus. Latin text, multiple formats.
Internet Archive: Quintilian's Institutes of oratory; or, Education of an orator, translated by John Selby Watson (1875). Multiple formats.
Lacus Curtius: Institutio Oratoria, translated by H. E. Butler (1920-22). HTML format.
Latin Library: Institutiones. Latin text, HTML format.
Loebulus. L124N - Quintilian I: Institutio Oratoria Books 1-3. PDF of public domain Loeb edition in Latin and English.
Loebulus. L125N - Quintilian II: Institutio Oratoria Books 4-6. PDF of public domain Loeb edition in Latin and English.
Loebulus. L126N - Quintilian III: Institutio Oratoria Books 7-9. PDF of public domain Loeb edition in Latin and English.
Loebulus.. L127N - Quintilian IV: Institutio Oratoria Books 10-12. PDF of public domain Loeb edition in Latin and English.
Perseus: Institutio Oratoria, translated by H.E. Butler. HTML and XML formats.
Other Resources
Librivox: Institutio Oratoria (On the Education of an Orator) - public domain audiobook.
Michigan State University: The History and Rhetoric of Institutio Oratoria. Archived at the Internet Archive.
Silva Rhetoricae: Outline of Institutio Oratoria.
Wikipedia: Institutio Oratoria.
The Great Conversation: Further reading at Tom's Learning Notes
Aristotle: Rhetoric.
Cicero: On the Orator.
Cicero: Brutus.
Cicero: Orator.
Tacitus: Dialogue on Orators.
Pliny the Younger: Letters.
Latin resources: Learn to read Latin texts in the original.
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