Quintilian: Institutio oratoria
Area: History of Rhetoric and Memory Studies
Intro
• The best students are those who excel at memory work and mimicry
• Quintilian defines rhetoric as “the art of speaking well”
o Well = effectively and virtuously
• Oratory that doesn’t move its hearers toward good is not rhetoric
• Natural ability and learning both contribute equally to rhetorical skills
• ≠ Cicero: gave natural ability primacy
• 5 parts of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, expression, memory, delivery/action
• 3 subject matters: the panegyrical, the deliberative, the judicial
• 3 offices an orator must accomplish in every speech: inform, move, please
• Stasis theory ask three questions: “Whether a thing is?”; “what is it?”; “of what species it is?”
Book 11, Chapter 2
• Memory is strengthened by exercise—all knowledge depends on memory
• An orator should have an abundance of facts memorized and ready to dispense
• Memory is the treasury of eloquence
• While we utter one thought, we always have to think of the next
o Always looking beyond the immediate object
• The memory transmits these conceptions to the delivery: intercommunication
• Memory may be dulled by the condition of the body
• Even inferior animals exhibit memory (returning to their homes)
• Memory doesn’t always stay with us, but returns after being lost
• Memory provides the orator with an order—extends series almost to infinity
o Patience of the hearer should fail sooner than the memory of the speaker
• Quintilian agrees with Plato when he says: what we commit to writing we lose—cripples our memory
o We lose it through mere neglect
• Simonides: memory assisted by localities impressed on the mind
• Place thoughts in line with symbols—walk through house and recite all items in any order
• Cicero: must fancy many plain and distinct places
• Metrodorus: 360 places and 12 sun signs (Yates: zodiac)
o Boastful of his memory as a result of art, not gift of nature
• How can the orators words flow on if he has to continually refer to particular images?
• Advantages to learn long speeches in parts; section should not be too short as that distracts and harasses the memory
• Finding similarities between objects is very helpful—will have greatest effect in fixing things in our memory
• Learn to memorize from the same tablets on which something’s written originally
o Will see all changes this way, too
• Memorize aloud—silence will let other thoughts interfere
• Testing by repetition
• The only and great art of memory is exercise and labor
o Learn much by heart and daily meditation
• Reminiscence: the most efficient quality of memory
• Question: should those who are readying to deliver a speech:
o Learn it by heart verbatim?
o Or, master the substance and order of particulars?
• A good memory appears like we’ve created a speech in that instant
Archive for July 22nd, 2008
Anonymous Rhetorica ad Herennium
Area: History of Rhetoric and Memory Studies
Intro
• Oldest surviving complete rhetoric manual in Latin
• Divided into four books, covering all five canons
o I & II: Invention (stasis theory and forensic oratory)
o III: Arrangement, Delivery, Memory
o IV: Style
• Author attacks Greek rhetoric—borrowing examples to illustrate rhetorical principles
o Author argues that the rhetorician should create own examples
Book III
• Deliberative speech: choice between two or several courses of action is considered
• Advantage in political deliberation has two aspects: security and honor
o Security: provide plan to avoid danger
• Divided further into might and craft
o Honor: right and praiseworthy
• Divided into wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance
• A well-furnished memory, or experienced verse matters, is wisdom
• Praiseworthy and right should never be separated
• Nothing ought to be deemed honorable which doesn’t produce safety
• Fortune favors the brave—not he who is safe in the present, but he who lives honorably
• Qualities of character (rest on our judgment and thought): wisdom, justice, courage, temperance
• Function of intro: to jog memory—must be attuned to audiences knowledge of subject
• Invention—the most difficult part of rhetoric
• Two kinds of arrangement: arising from principles of rhetoric and accommodated to particular circumstances
• Arrangement for proof and refutation arguments:
o Strongest arguments placed at beginning and end
o Medium force arguments in the middle
o What’s said at the end is easily committed to memory—give something useful, fresh, and strong
• The guardian of all parts of rhetoric: memory
• 2 kinds of memory: natural and artificial
o Natural: imbedded in our minds, born simultaneously with thought
o Artificial: strengthened by training and system of discipline
• Artificial and natural memory strengthen each other
• Artificial memory includes backgrounds—scenes natural or artificial set off se we can grasp them with natural memory
• Should desire to memorize large numbers of items, equip ourselves with number of backgrounds
o That way we can repeat anything in any direction
• We are more likely to remember something that’s interesting to us
• Author disagrees with Greek practice of listing images that correspond to words
o Why should we rob anybody of making connections and seeking things out for oneself
• 223: “Nor have I included memorization of words to enable us to get very by rote, but rather as an exercise whereby to strengthen that other kind of memory, the memory of matter, which is of practical use”
• A ready memory is very useful, and we must strive to acquire so useful a faculty
Favorite moment
225: “You might rehearse in your mind each of the first four divisions, and—what is especially necessary—fortify your knowledge of them with exercise”
