Quintilian in Northern Europe during the Renaissance, 1479–1620

This chapter discusses the impact of Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria in northern Europe between 1479 and 1620. It discusses the printing history of the text, which began in Italy but was largely northern European after 1520 and which peaked in the years 1520–1550, and the commentaries which were published alongside the text. It analyses the use made of Quintilian by prominent northern humanist writers of textbooks on rhetoric and letter-writing, such as Rudolph Agricola, Erasmus, Philipp Melanchthon, Juan Luis Vives, Peter Ramus, Cyprien Soarez, Gerardus Vossius, and Nicolas Caussin. It considers the use made of Quintilian’s ideas in theories of education by Sir Thomas Elyot and Erasmus and in Montaigne’s Essais.