This impression is remarkable for containing forty plates of battles, and
other things relating to the campaigns of Cæsar; as also inscriptions,
found in various cities of Spain. It is also distinguished as having been
the prototype of Clarke’s splendid edition of Cæsar, which Mr Dibdin
pronounces to be “the most sumptuous classical volume which this country
ever produced. It contains,” says he, “eighty-seven copperplates, which
were engraved at the expense of the different noblemen to whom they are
dedicated. Of these plates, I am not disposed to think so highly as some
fond admirers: The head of Marlborough, to whom this courtly work is
dedicated, by Kneller and Vertue, does not convey any exalted idea of that
renowned hero; and the bust of Julius Cæsar, which follows it, will appear
meagre and inelegant to those who have contemplated a similar print in the
quarto publication of Lavater’s Physiognomy. The plates are in general
rather curious than ably executed; and compared with what Flaxman has done
for Homer and Æschylus, are tasteless and unspirited. The type of this
magnificent volume is truly beautiful and splendid, and for its fine
lustre and perfect execution, reflects immortality on the publisher. The
text is accompanied with various readings in the margin; and at the end of
the volume, after the fragments of Cæsar, are the critical notes of the
editor, compiled with great labour from the collation of ancient MSS. and
former editions. A MS. in the Queen’s library, and one belonging to the
Bishop of Ely, were particularly consulted by Dr Clarke. The work closes
with a large and correct index of names and places. It is upon the whole a
most splendid edition, and will be a lasting monument of the taste, as
well as erudition of the editor.”
The best edition since the time of Dr Clarke’s, is that by Oudendorp,
printed at Leyden in 1737. This editor had the use of many ancient MSS.,
particularly two of the beginning of the ninth century, one of which had
belonged to Julius Bongarsius, and the other to Petrus Bellovacensis. “The
preceding commentators on Cæsar,” says Harles, “have all been eclipsed by
the skill and researches of Oudendorp, who, by a careful examination of
numerous MSS. and editions, has often successfully restored the true
ancient reading of his author.” He has inserted in his publication
Dodwell’s disquisition concerning the author of the books _De Bello
Alexandrino_, and Scaliger’s _Topographical Description of Gaul_. Morus
reprinted this edition, but with many critical improvements, at Leipsic,
1780. He has illustrated the military tactics of Cæsar, from Ritter’s
History of the Gauls, and from the books of Guischardus, _De Re Militari
Veterum_. The best modern German edition is that of Oberlin, (Leipsic,
1805). It is founded on the basis of those of Oudendorp and Morus, with
additional observations, and a careful revision of the text. In the
preface, those writings in which the faith due to Cæsar’s Commentaries is
attempted to be shaken, are reviewed and refuted; and there are added
several fragments of Cæsar, as also those notices of ancient authors
concerning him, which had been neglected or omitted by Morus.
Cæsar was first rendered into _Italian_ by Agost. Ortica, the translator
of Sallust. He says, in the preface, that his version was executed in a
very hurried manner, as it was transcribed and printed all in the course
of six months. Argelati could not ascertain the date of the most ancient
edition, which was printed at Milan, but he thinks that it was as old as
the fifteenth century(647). This impression was followed by not fewer than
twelve others, before the middle of the sixteenth century. A subsequent
translation, by F. Baldelli, appeared at Venice, 1554. This edition was,
succeeded by many others, particularly one at Venice in 1595, quarto, of
which Palladio, the great architect, took charge. He inserted in it
various engravings of battles, encampments, sieges, and other military
operations, from plates which had been executed by his two sons, Leonida
and Orazio, and had come into his hands soon after their premature
decease. He prepared the edition chiefly for the sake of introducing these
designs, and thereby honouring the memory of his children. To this edition
there is a preface by Palladio on the military affairs of the Romans,
their legions, arms, and encampments. A splendid impression of Baldelli’s
version, accompanied with Palladio’s designs, was thrown off at Venice in
1619. In 1737, a translation appeared at Venice, bearing to be printed
from an ancient MS. of Cæsar, in Italian, which the editor says he had
discovered, (_where_ he does not specify,) and had in some few places
corrected and modernized. Paitoni has exposed this literary fraud, and has
shown, that it is just the translation of Baldelli, with a few words
altered at the beginning of paragraphs. In some respects, however, it is a
good edition, containing various tables and notices conducive to the
proper understanding of the author.
We have seen that several translations of the Latin classics were executed
by order of the French king, John. Charles V., who succeeded him in 1364,
was a still warmer patron of learning, and was himself tolerably versed in
Latin literature. “Tant que compettement,” says Christine de Pise, in her
Memoirs of him, “entendoit son Latin.” By his order and directions the
first _French_ translation of Cæsar was undertaken(648). But the earliest
French translation of Cæsar’s Commentaries which was printed, was that of
Robert Gaguin, dedicated to Charles VIII. and published in 1488. Of the
recent French versions the most esteemed is that by Turpin de Crissi,
accompanied by historical and critical notes, and printed at Montargis,
1785.
The part of Cæsar’s Commentaries which relates to the Gallic wars was
translated into _English_ as early as 1565, by Arthur Golding, who
dedicated his work to Sir William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh. In
1695, a translation of the whole Commentaries was printed with the
following title: “The Commentaries of Cæsar, of his Wars in Gallia, and of
the Civil Wars betwixt him and Pompey, _with many excellent and judicious
Observations_ thereupon; as also, the Art of our Modern Training; by
Clement Edmonds, Esq.” The best translation is that by “William Duncan,
Professor of Philosophy in the University of Aberdeen, printed at London,
1755,” with a long preliminary Discourse concerning the Roman Art of War.
CICERO.
Some of Cicero’s orations were studied harangues, which he had prepared
and written over previous to their delivery. This, however, was not the
case with the greater proportion of his speeches, most of which were
pronounced without much premeditation, but were afterwards copied out,
with such corrections and embellishments as bestowed on them a greater
polish and lustre than when they had originally fallen from his lips.
Before the invention of printing had increased the means of satisfying
public curiosity, as no oration was given to the world but by the author
himself, he had always the power of altering and improving by his
experience of the effect it produced at delivery. Pliny informs us, that
many things on which Cicero had enlarged at the time when he actually
spoke in the Senate and the Forum, were retrenched when he ultimately gave
his orations to the public in writing(649). Cicero himself had somewhere
declared, that the defence of Cornelius had occupied four days, whence
Pliny concludes, that those orations which, when delivered at full length,
took up so much time at the bar, were greatly altered and abridged, when
he afterwards comprised them in a single volume. The orations, in
particular, for Muræna and Varenus, he says, seem now to contain merely
the general heads of a discourse. Sometimes, however, they were extended
and not curtailed, by the orator in the closet, as was confessedly the
case in the defence of Milo. A few of the orations which Cicero had
delivered, he did not consider as at all worthy of preservation. Thus, of
the oration for Dejotarus, he says, in one of his letters to Dolabella, “I
did not imagine that I had preserved among my papers the trifling speech
which I made in behalf of Dejotarus; however, I have found it, and sent it
to you, agreeably to your request(650).” This accounts for many speeches
of Cicero, the delivery of which is recorded in history, being now lost.
It appears, however, that those which he considered deserving of his care,
though they may be widely different from the state in which they were
originally pronounced, came pure from the hand of the author, either in
the shape in which he would have wished to have delivered them, or in that
which he considered best adapted for publication and perusal. They were
probably transcribed by himself, and copies of them multiplied by his
freedmen, such as Tyro and Tyrannio, whom he had accustomed to accurate
transcription. His orations had also the good fortune to meet, at a very
early period, with a judicious and learned commentator in the person of
Asconius Pedianus, a grammarian in the reign of Nero, part of whose
Commentary was discovered by Poggio, along with other classical works, in
the monastery of St Gall, near Constance.
All the orations of Cicero were not lost during the middle ages. Pope
Gerbert, in one of his letters, asks from the Abbot Gesilbert a copy of
the concluding part of the speech for Dejotarus; and he writes to another
of his correspondents, to bring him Cicero’s treatise _De Republicâ_, and
the Orations against Verres, “Comitentur iter tuum Tulliana opuscula, et
de Republicâ et in Verrem(651):” Brunetto Latini, who died in 1294,
translated into Italian the orations for Dejotarus, Marcellus, and
Ligarius, which were afterwards printed at Lyons in 1568(652). These three
harangues being in a great measure complimentary addresses to Cæsar, and
containing no sentiment but what might be safely expressed in presence of
an unlimited sovereign, more transcripts had been made of them in Rome’s
tyrannical ages, than of those orations which breathed forth the expiring
spirit of liberty.
Cicero was the idol of Petrarch, the great restorer of classical
literature. He never could speak of him but in terms of deep and
enthusiastic admiration. The sweetness and sonorousness of Tully’s periods
charmed his ear; and though unable to penetrate the depths of his
philosophy, yet his vigorous fancy often soared with the Roman orator into
the highest regions of imagination. Hence, while eager for the discovery
of all the classics, his chief diligence was exercised in endeavouring to
preserve such works of Cicero as were then known, and to recover such as
were lost(653). Petrarch received in loan from Lapo of Castiglionchio a
copy of several of Cicero’s orations, among which were the Philippics, and
the oration for Milo. These he kept by him for four years, that he might
transcribe them with his own hand, on account of the blunders of the
copyists in that age. This we learn from the letters of Lapo, published by
the Abbé Mehus. Coming to Liege when about twenty-five years of age, that
is, in 1329, Petrarch remained there till two orations of Cicero, which he
had discovered in that city, were transcribed, one by his own hand, and
another by a friend, both of which were immediately transmitted by him to
Italy. He was detained at Liege for some time by the difficulty of
procuring even the worst sort of ink. Several other orations of Cicero
were discovered by Petrarch in different parts of Italy.
Dominico Arretino, who was nearly contemporary with Petrarch, declares, in
one of his works, entitled _Fons_, that he had seen eleven of Cicero’s
orations, and that a person had told him that he actually possessed and
had read twenty of them(654). It appears, however, that in the time of
Cosmo de Medici those works of Cicero which were extant were very much
corrupted. “Illorum librorum,” says Niccolo Niccoli, speaking of some of
the works of Cicero, “magna pars interierit, hi vero qui supersunt adeo
mendosi sunt, ut paulo ab interitu distent;” hence, in the middle of the
fifteenth century, the discovery of a new MS. of Cicero was hailed as a
new acquisition. At Langres, in a library of the monks of Clugni, in
Burgundy, Poggio found the oration for Cæcina, which he immediately
transcribed, and sent various copies of it to his friends in Italy. In the
monasteries around Constance he discovered the two orations against
Rullus, _De Lege Agrariâ_, and that to the people on the same subject;
also the orations _Pro Rabirio_, and _Pro Roscio_. A note on the MS. copy
of the oration _in Pisonem_, preserved in the abbey of Santa Maria, in
Florence, records the fact of this harangue having been likewise
discovered by Poggio(655).
A compendium of Cicero’s treatise _De Inventione_ was well known in the
dark ages, having been translated into Italian, in an abridged form, in
the thirteenth century, by a professor of Bologna. This was almost the
first prose work which had appeared in the language, and was printed at
Lyons with the _Ethica d’Aristotile_, by Brunetto Latini, who also
translated the first book _De Inventione_(656). Lupus of Ferrieres
possessed a copy of Cicero’s _Rhetorica_, as he himself informs us(657),
but it was incomplete; and he accordingly asks Einhart, who had been his
preceptor, for the loan of his MS. of this work, in order that his own
might be perfected. Ingulphus, who flourished in England towards the close
of the eleventh century, declares, that he was sent from Westminster to
the school at Oxford, where he learned Aristotle, and the first two books
of Tully’s _Rhetorica_(658). Now, if the first two books of the
_Rhetorica_, which are all that have hitherto been discovered, were used
as an elementary work in the public school at Oxford, they can hardly be
supposed to have been very scarce in Italy. From the jurisconsult, Raymond
Superantius, or Sorranza, to whom he had been indebted for the books _De
Gloriâ_, Petrarch received an imperfect copy of the tract _De Oratore_, of
which the MSS., though generally incomplete, were by no means uncommon at
that period. “Ab hoc habui,” says he, “et Varronis et Ciceronis aliqua:
Cujus unum volumen de communibus fuit; sed inter ipsa communia libri de
Oratore ac de Legibus imperfecti, ut fere semper inveniuntur.” Nearly half
a century from the death of Petrarch had elapsed, before the discovery of
a complete copy of Cicero’s rhetorical works. It was about the year 1418,
during the Popedom of Martin V., and while Poggio was in England, that
Gerard Landriani, Bishop of Lodi, found in that city, among the ruins of
an ancient monastery, a MS., containing Cicero’s treatise _De Oratore_,
his _Brutus_ and _Orator_. He carried the MS. with him to Milan, and there
gave it to Gaspar Bazizza. The character, however, in which it was
written, was such, that few scholars or antiquaries in that city could
read it. At length Cosmus, a young Veronese scholar, deciphered and
transcribed the dialogue _De Oratore_. Blondus Flavius, the author of the
_Italia Illustrata_, who had come in early youth from his native place,
Forli, to Milan, transcribed the _Brutus_, and sent copies of it to
Guarinus of Verona, and Leonard Justiniani, at Venice. By these means the
rhetorical works of Cicero were soon diffused all over Italy. The
discovery was hailed as a triumph, and subject of public congratulation.
Poggio was informed of it while in England, and there awaited the arrival
of a copy with the most lively impatience(659).
The philosophic writings of Cicero have descended to us in a more
imperfect state than his oratorical dialogues or orations. In consequence
of the noble spirit of freedom and patriotism which they breathe, their
proscription would no doubt speedily follow that of their author. There is
a common story of a grandson of Augustus concealing one of Cicero’s
philosophic works, on being detected while perusing it by his grandfather,
and though he received his gracious permission to finish it, the anecdote
shews that it was among the _libri prohibiti_. The chief reading, indeed,
of Alexander Severus, was the _Republic_ and _Offices_(660): But Alexander
was an imperial phœnix, which never revived in the Roman empire; and we
hear little of Cicero during the reigns of the barbarian sovereigns of
Italy in the middle ages.
Petrarch procured an imperfect copy of Cicero’s treatise _De Legibus_,
from the Lawyer Raymond Sorranza(661), who had a most extensive library,
and to whom, as we have just seen, he had been indebted for a MS. of the
dialogue _De Oratore_.
No further discovery was subsequently made of the remaining parts of the
work _De Legibus_. The other philosophical writings of Cicero were found
by Petrarch among the books in his father’s library, or were recovered for
him by the persons whom he employed for this purpose in almost every
quarter of Italy: “Abeuntibus amicis,” says he, “et, ut fit, petentibus
numquid e patriâ suâ vellem, respondebam,—nihil præter libros Ciceronis.”
Petrarch frequently quotes the treatise _De Finibus_, as a work with which
he was familiar. Leonard Aretine, however, has been generally considered
as the discoverer of that dialogue, as also of the treatise _De Naturâ
Deorum_(662).
“There is no collection of my letters,” says Cicero, in one of his
epistles to Atticus; “but Tiro has about seventy of them, and you can
furnish some more. I must look over and correct them, and then they may be
published.” This, however, never was accomplished by himself. After the
revolution of the Roman state, the publication of his letters must have
been dangerous, on account of the freedom with which he expresses himself
concerning Octavius, and the ministers of his power. Cornelius Nepos
mentions, that some of Cicero’s letters were published, but that sixteen
books of Epistles to Atticus, from his consulship to his death, though
extant, were by no means in common circulation(663). The reigns of the
princes who succeeded Augustus, were not more favourable to freedom than
his own; and hence the Familiar Letters, as well as those to Atticus,
probably remained long in the cabinets of the curious, before they
received any critical inspection. The Letters of Cicero, however, were
well known in the middle ages, and even in those times pains were taken to
have accurate copies of them. Lupus Ferrariensis procured duplicates of
Cicero’s Epistles, in order to collate them with his own MSS., and thus to
make up a correct and complete collection(664). John of Salisbury cites
two of Cicero’s letters to Caius Cassius; one of which is now contained in
the twelfth, and the other in the fifteenth book of the _Familiar
Epistles_. In the Life of Julius Cæsar, which passes under the name of
Julius Celsus, and which was written during the middle ages, extracts are
occasionally made from the _Familiar Epistles_. They had become scarce,
however, at the time when Petrarch found a copy of them at Verona, a place
where he little expected to make such a discovery(665). This old MS.,
which Victorius thinks of the age of the Florentine Pandects, ultimately
came into the Medicean library; and a copy which Petrarch had transcribed
from it, was brought from Padua to Florence by Niccolo Niccoli, at whose
death it was placed in the library of St Marc in that city(666). Several
scholars who inspected both have observed, that the transcript by Petrarch
differed in some respects from the original(667). It was also marked with
various corrections and glosses, in the hand-writing of Niccolo Niccoli
himself(668). All the other MSS. of the Familiar Epistles flowed from this
discovered by Petrarch, as we learn from a passage of Lagomarsinus, who
speaks thus of the different _codices_ of the _Epistolæ Familiares_:
“Quibus tamen ego codicibus non tantum tribuo, quantum uni illi omnium
quotquot ubique terrarum, idem epistolarum corpus continentes, extant,
vetustissimo, (et ex quo cæteros omnes qui usquam sunt tanquam e fonte ac
capite manâsse, et Angelus Politianus, et Petrus Victorius memoriæ
prodiderunt,) qui Florentiæ in Mediceo-Laurentianæ Bibliothecæ XLIX.
adservatur numero IX. extra notatus(669).” There has been a good deal of
doubt and discussion how these Letters first came to obtain the title of
_Familiares_. They are not so called in any original MS. of Cicero, nor
are they cited by this name in any ancient author, as Aulus Gellius, or
Priscian. These writers generally quote each book of the Epistles by the
name of the person to whom the first letter in that book is addressed.
Thus Gellius cites the first book by the name of the Letters to Lentulus,
because it commences with a letter to him. Nor are the MSS. in which the
appellation of the _Epistolæ Familiares_ is employed uniform in the title.
In some MSS. they are called _Epistolæ Familiares_, in others, _Epistolæ
ad Familiares_, and in a Palatine MS. _Libri Epistolarum Familiarum_.
Previous to the year 1340, Petrarch also discovered the _Epistles to
Atticus_(670) which had been missing for many centuries; and on perusing
them, declared that he now recognized Cicero as an inconsiderate and
unfortunate old man. He copied them over with his own hand, and arranged
them in their proper order. The MS. in his hand-writing passed, after his
death, into the possession of Coluccio Salutati, and subsequently became
the property of Coluccio’s disciple Leonard Aretine. Donatus, the son of
Leonard, succeeded to it, and by him it was transferred to Donatus
Acciaiolus. After his decease, it fell into the hands of an obscure
grammarian, who gave it to Bartollomeo Cavalcanti, in whose library it was
consulted by P. Victorius, and was afterwards bestowed on him by the
owner. Victorius, highly valuing this MS., which he first recognised to be
in the hand-writing of Petrarch, conceived that it would be preserved with
greatest security in some public collection; and he accordingly presented
it to Cosmo, the first Duke of Tuscany, to be deposited in the Medicean
library(671). With regard to the most ancient MS. from which Petrarch made
the copy, it unfortunately was lost, as Petrus Victorius laments in one of
his Epistles(672). “Utinam inveniretur exemplum, unde has ad Atticum
descripsit Petrarca, ut exstat illud, quo usus est in describendis alteris
illis, quæ Familiares appellantur, de cujus libri antiquitate, omni
veneratione digna, magnifice multa vereque alio loco prædicavi.” It thus
appears, that the Epistles to Atticus were well known to Petrarch. Still,
however, as they were scarce in the fifteenth century, Poggio, who found a
copy, while attending the Council of Constance, was considered in his own
age as the discoverer of the entire collection of the _Epistles to
Atticus_, and has been regarded in the same light by modern writers.
The three books of the Letters of Cicero to his brother Quintus, were
found by an Italian grammarian, Casparinus of Bergamo, who died in the
year 1431; and who some time before his death had taken great pains to
amend their corrupted text(673). That they were much corrupted, may be
conjectured from what we know of the manner in which they were originally
written, for it appears, from one of the Letters of Cicero(674), that
Quintus had complained that he could scarcely read some of his former
letters. Now, when Quintus could scarcely read his brother’s hand-writing,
what must have been the difficulties and mistakes of the _Librarius_ by
whom they were first collected and copied?
Cicero’s translation of Aratus appears to have been extant in the ninth
century. Lupus of Ferrieres had an imperfect copy of it, and begs a
complete copy from his correspondent Ansbald. “Tu autem,” says he, “huic
nostro cursori Tullium in Arato trade; ut ex eo, quem me impetraturum
credo, quæ deesse illi Egil noster aperuit, suppleantur.(675)”