De oratore [and other rhetorical works, including the pseudonymous Rhetorica ad Herennium]

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Creator

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Title

De oratore [and other rhetorical works, including the pseudonymous Rhetorica ad Herennium]

Coverage

Venice

Publisher

Paulus Manutius

Date

1559

Description

The art of memory—and the memory technique now known as the memory palace—was commonplace in the oratorical schools of the ancient world. Cicero’s collected rhetorical works, here printed by the son of Aldus Manutius, contain some of the earliest descriptions of this art. According to legend, the poet Simonides was able to identify the bodies of dinner guests crushed by a falling roof by recalling their places around the table. An early annotator of this book was also interested in this subject, copying out rerum omnium t[h]esaurus memoria: “the memory is the treasury of all things.”

Source

From the collection of Rhiannon Knol

Contributor

Provenance: Walter Dennison