The Structure and Contents of the Institutio oratoria

Abstract

This chapter offers an introduction to the Institutio oratoria for a general readership. A brief synopsis of each of the twelve books of the Institutio is followed by some observations on the structure and contents of the work. The prefatory letter to Trypho shows that Quintilian wrote the work for his friend Marcus Vitorius Marcellus and his son, and later decided to send it for publication to Trypho. Though written in segments, the work was carefully planned in its entirety at the outset, but it was not intended as an exhaustive treatment of the subject matter. Quintilian probably used writing tablets before a scribe transferred the text to papyrus rolls. Quintilian used different methods for treating his subject, according to whether he wrote as a veteran teacher, as an experienced legal pleader, or as a historian and theorist of rhetoric. He aimed at a varied group of audiences: teachers of rhetoric, their pupils, and the educated elite of Rome.