Boccaccio's Knowledge of Quintilian

IN an article on "Quintilian in the Late Middle Ages" (SPECULUM, XXVII [19592], 71-78) Priscilla S. Boskoff, after discussing the knowledge of the Institutio Oratoria shown by Petrarch and by a member of the Colonna family, says (p. 75): "Whether Boccaccio was acquainted with the work as a whole or only through Petrarch's citations is still in contention" adding, in note 40: "Nolhac, ii, 83 f., note 4, denies that Boccaccio knew Quintilian. Colson, p. lviii, especially note 92, believes the contrary." Actually the statements by Pierre de Nolhac and F. H. Colson are more guarded than Mrs Boskoff's summaries would imply. In his Pe'trarque et l'humanisme (Paris, 1907) Nolhac begins (ii, 83) by saying that, although there is no proof that Boccaccio owned a copy of the Institutio Oratoria, Petrarch and Salutati studied a fragmentary text of this work. He adds (p. 83, n. 4) that, of the two passages of Boccaccio's Genealogia Deorum Gentilium which Hortis cited as showing an acquaintance with Quintilian, "l'un ne se retrouve pas dans les Institutiones, l'autre semble emprunte au De uita solitaria de P.;" and he ends by saying: "II est vraisemblable pourtant que Boccace a au moins parcouru l'ouvrage." Colson, on page lviii of his edition of the first book of the Institutio Oratoria (Cambridge, England, 19924), paraphrases Nolhac's statement about the two supposed quotations from Quintilian in the Genealogia Deorum Gentilium and adds: "I feel little doubt that this is an error, and that Boccaccio shows a distinct, though I would not say an intimate, knowledge of Quintilian." In note 92 on this page Colson discusses the two passages from the Genealogia, saying of Gen. Deor. xi.92 in connection with Inst. x.3.923-928 and De Vita Sol. I.5.1: "Boccaccio has garbled his quotation badly, but on the supposition that the quotation was borrowed from Petrarch the garbling would be worse. Quintilian says that woods, etc., though affected by poets, are really distracting to the student and recommends rather 'silentium noctis.' Boccaccio states this as though 'silentium noctis' was regarded by Quintilian as equivalent to lonely woodland scenes. But the form in which Petrarch puts the sense does not appear to differ from Quintilian in any way that would account for the mistake." The other passage (Gen. Deor. xiv.1O) is given by Colson partly in direct quotation, partly in English paraphrase: "The fools say that the poets insert fables to show their eloquence, 'quia circa vera vis eloquentiae non potest ostendi. Male profecto noverunt Quintiliani sententiam, cuius maximi oratoris opinio est, circa falsa nullum eloquentiae nervum posse consistere.' I see no difficulty in referring this to V.192.17, ... with also some thought of ?920 just below." In note 1 on p. lviii Colson remarks that Quintilian's name also appears in Decameron, vi, 10, "where Cipolla, the eloquent friar, might have been called 'Tullio medesimo o forse Quintiliano,' adding, "Here I suppose B. had the Decl. mainly in view." It is possible to supplement these discussions with further evidence of Boccaccio's acquaintance with the Institutio Oratoria, and, in particular, to show that