Book

Rhetorica ad Alexandrum

Louis Verreth and Jeroen De Keyser recently published a critical edition of Francesco Filelfo’s Latin translation of the Rhetorica ad Alexandrum (Edizioni dell'Orso).

Author

Louis Verreth and Jeroen De Keyser

Date

13 September 2022

Links

Edizioni dell' Orso

Francesco Filelfo’s Latin rendering of the (pseudo-) Aristotelian Rhetorica ad Alexandrum was the first translation of any ancient Greek rhetorical treatise in the Quattrocento. It turned out to be the most successful and enduring of all of Filelfo’s writings. Surviving in 32 manuscript witnesses, his translation would remain the standard Latin version for many centuries to come. No other work of Filelfo’s has been in print for such a long time, from the editio princeps in 1483/84 to five other incunabulum editions and some forty sixteenth-century reprints, until its inclusion in the famous Aristotle edition by Immanuel Bekker. This edition of Filelfo’s Rhetorica ad Alexandrum is the first one to be based on a comprehensive study of the text’s transmission. It also offers, on facing pages, the Greek source text as Filelfo found it in his copy of the Greek treatise, allowing readers to grasp at a glance both Filelfo’s rendering and its model, and to examine the humanist’s translation practices and preferences throughout. Furthermore, it contains a bi-directional glossarium of all rhetorical terms and concepts that are used in the treatise.