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 [pg A-54]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, [pg A-55]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]”
Various editions of separate portions of the writings of Cicero were printed before the publication of a complete collection of his works. The Orations—the treatise De Oratore—the Opera Philosophica—the Epistolæ Familiares—and Ad Atticum, were all edited in Italy between the years 1466 and 1471—most of them being printed at Rome by Sweynheim and Pannartz. The most ancient printing-press in Italy was that established at the Monastery of Subiaco, in the Campagna di Roma, by these printers. Sweynheim and Pannartz were two German scholars, who had been induced to settle at that convent by the circumstance that it was chiefly inhabited by German monks. In 1467, they went from Subiaco, to Rome[676]; after this removal, they received in correcting their editions, the assistance of a poor but eminent scholar, Giandrea de Bussi; and were aided by the patronage of Andrea, Bishop of Aleria, who furnished prefaces to many of their classical editions. Notwithstanding the rage for classical MSS. which had so recently existed, and the novelty, usefulness, and importance of the art which they first introduced into Italy, as also the support which they received from men of rank and learning, they laboured under the greatest difficulties, and prosecuted their undertaking with very inadequate compensation, as we learn from a petition presented, 1472, in their names, to Pope Sextus, by the chief patron, the Bishop of Aleria. Their necessities were probably produced by the number of copies of each impression which they threw off, and which exceeding the demand, they were so encumbered by those left on their hands, as to be reduced to the greatest poverty and distress[677]. The first book which they printed at Rome, was the Epistolæ Familiares of Cicero.
Alexander Minutianus, who published an edition of the whole works at Milan, 1498, in four volumes folio, was the first person who comprised the scattered publications of Cicero in one uniform book. Harles informs us, in one passage, that Minutianus did not consult any MSS. in the preparation of this edition, but merely collated the editions of the separate parts of Cicero’s writings previously published, so that his work is only a continued reimpression of preceding editions[678]; but he elsewhere mentions, that he had inspected the MSS. of the Orations which Poggio had brought from Germany to Italy[679]. In the Orations, Minutianus chiefly followed the Brescian edition, 1483, which was itself founded on that of Rome. The work was printed off, not according to the best arrangement, but as the copies of the preceding editions successively reached him, which he himself acknowledges in the preface. “Sed quam necessitas præscripsit dum vetustiora exemplaria ex diversis et longinquis locis exspectamus.” “If we peruse Saxius,” says Mr Dibdin, “we shall see with what toil, and at what a heavy expense, this celebrated work of Minutianus was compiled.” De Bure and Ernesti are lavish in their praises of its typographical beauty. The latter says it is printed “grandi modulo, chartis et lite[pg A-56]ris pulchris et splendidis.” The Aldine edition, which was published in parts from 1512 to 1523, is not accounted a very critical or correct one, though the latter portion of it was printed under the care of Naugerius. It would be endless to enumerate the subsequent editions of Cicero. That of Petrus Victorius, however, whom Harles calls Ciceronis Æsculapius, printed at Venice in 1534–37, in four volumes folio, should not be forgotten, as there is no commentator to whom Cicero has been more indebted than to Victorius, particularly in the correction and emendation of the Epistles. The edition of Lambinus, Paris, 1566, also deserves notice. Lambinus was an acute and daring commentator, who made many corrections on the text, but adopted some alterations too rashly. From his time downwards, Harles thinks that the editors of Cicero may be divided into two classes; some following the bold changes introduced by Lambinus, and others preferring the more scrupulous text of Victorius. Of the latter class was Gruterus, who, in his edition published at Hamburgh, 1618, appears to have obstinately rejected even the most obvious emendations which had been recently made on the text of his author. The three editions of Ernesti’s Cicero, (Lips. 1737, Hal. Sax. 1758–74,) and the three of Olivet’s, (Paris, 1740, Geneva, 1758, Oxon. 1783,) are too well known to be particularized or described. Olivet did not collate MSS.; but he compared with each other what he considered as the four most important editions of Cicero; those of P. Victorius, Paullus Manutius, Lambinus, and Gruterus. In 1795, the first volume of a new edition of Cicero, by Beck, was printed at Leipsic, and since that period, three more volumes, at long intervals, have fallen from the press. The last volume which appeared, was in 1807; and along with the three by which it was preceded, comprehends the Orations of Cicero. The preface contains a very full account of preceding editions, and the most authoritative MSS. of Cicero. Ernesti’s editions were adopted as the basis of the text; but the editor departs from them where he sees occasion. He does not propose many new emendations of his own; but he seems a very acute judge of the merit of various readings, and a judicious selector from the corrections of others. While this edition of Beck was proceeding in Germany, Schütz brought forth another, which is now completed, except part of the Index Latinitatis. There are few notes subjoined to the text; but long summaries are prefixed to each oration and work of Cicero; and the Rhetorica ad Herennium is introduced by an ample dissertation concerning the real author of that treatise. A new arrangement of the Epistolæ Familiares has also been adopted. They are no longer printed, as in most other editions, in a chronological series, but are classed according to the individuals to whom they are addressed. The whole publication is dedicated to Great Britain and the Allied Sovereigns, in a long columnar panegyric.
There have also been lately published in Germany, several learned and critical editions of separate portions of the works of Cicero, particularly his Philosophical Writings. The edition of all his Philosophic Treatises, by Goerenz, which is now proceeding and already comprehends the Academica, the dialogues De Legibus and De Finibus, is distinguished by intelligent Prefaces and Excursuses on the periods of the composition of the respective Dialogues; as also on the design of the author in their composition.