Opera inedita, cum epistulis item ineditis Antonini Pii, M. Aurelii, L. Veri, et Appiani, nec non aliorum veterum fragmentis

by Marcus Cornelius Fronto | edited by Angelo Mai

Milan: Regiis typis, 1815

v. 1: [8], CXII, 214, [2] p. + [3] plates -- v. 2: [3], 216-566, [2] p. + [2] plates (1 folding) | 8vo | v. 1: pi^4 a-g^8 1-13^8 14^4 -- v. 2: chi^6 15-35^8 36^4 | 231 x 165 mm

The editio princeps of the writings of Marcus Fronto, Afro-European of Roman antiquity and “one of the most eloquent orators that Roman education ever produced” (Otele). His work was all but forgotten until the editor discovered a seventh-century palimpsest containing his work in Milan. ¶ Fronto was born in present-day Constantine, Algeria, once an African province under Roman imperial dominion. He is a part of a generation of Roman North Africans “who had left their birthplace and made distinguishing careers in elite capitals including Rome, Seville, and others." He was a tutor and close confidant to two emperors, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. The majority of his extant works are epistolary correspondence between himself and them, and the editor here has included some previously unpublished letters from Antoninus Pius and Appian. Although born outside of the imperial center in a historical moment in which there was a “demonstrable connection between the views Greeks and Romans held of foreign peoples and their ideology of imperial expansion” (Isaac), Fronto had a life-long career as an esteemed tutor and orator. He seems to have maintained a strong connection to his ancestry, referring to himself as “‘a Libyan [present-day North Africa] of the Libyan nomad’” to the mother of Marcus Aurelius, Domitia Lucilla. He also wished to return to his place of birth at one point, applying for a position of proconsul in Africa, but was given a post in Asia. Scholar Olivette Otele emphasizes within African Europeans: An Untold History, that “none of the correspondence refers to his origins in a negative way." However, Greco-Roman antiquity was a society harbored on “imperialism and the ideology of enslavement (and the concomitant integration or non-integration) of foreigners in those societies” (Isaac). ¶ Although ultimately accepted and revered within the echelons of imperial society, scholars infer that “Fronto’s linguistic ‘zeal’ typifies the views of those who were born on the fringes of the empire. They felt the need to overcompensate but excelled in an environment that encouraged assimilation” (Otele). Fronto maneuvered a vehemently imperialist society, effectively mobilizing through the employment of his intellectual capabilities. At end of v. 2, view the facsimile of a palimpsest manuscript presenting a letter to Marcus Aurelius. ¶ A compelling pair of volumes relevant to the study of formations of proto-racism, imperialism, and assimilation within the Roman empire.

PROVENANCE: A variety of shelfmarks written on each front paste-down, as well as an early ownership signature—Jo Lasberg—perhaps that of antiquary and book collector Joseph von Lassberg (1770-1855). Old shelfmark labels at spine feet. Blue ink stamp of a German library on each title verso.

CONDITION: Original plain blue paper wrappers with printed paper spine labels, all deckle edges preserved. Illustrated with a handful of coin reproductions, plus plates facing 3, 33, 83, 215, and 566 (again mostly medallions, save for the manuscript facsimile facing 566). Loosely laid into v. 1 is an untrimmed quarto sheet of ads for bookseller Antonio Fortunato Stella, listing first the present edition of Fronto. ¶ Some minimal scattered foxing, but really quite gorgeous internally. Wrappers foxed and moderately soiled; spines faded, with some chipping at the ends, and occasional cracks in the paper.

REFERENCES: Benjamin Isaac, The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity (Princeton University Press, 2004; course book edition, 2013), p. 2; Olivette Otele, African Europeans: An Untold History (Basic, 2021), p. 35-37; C.R. Haines, The Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto (Heinemann, 1919), p. x ("Though Fronto's reputation stood so high for 300 years after his death, scarcely a line of his works had survived, as it seemed, to modern times, until in 1815 Cardinal Mai discovered in the Imperial Library at Milan a palimpsest MS. containing many of his letters, the existence of which in classical times had indeed been occasionally intimated, though little was known of their contents."); Michele Renee Salzman, "Latin Letter Collections before Late Antiquity," Late Antique Letter Collections: A Critical Introduction and Reference Guide (Univ of Calif, 2017), p. 26 ("there is no evidence that Fronto planned to publish a collection of his letters in his lifetime. This may explain the silence in our sources about them in the century after his death. Only in the fourth and fifth centuries, with the resurgence of interest in Latin rhetoric and grammar, and with the renewed appreciation for the archaizing style that he advocated, do Fronto's works appear in citations...But we cannot be certain exactly when a collection of Fronto's letters first appeared. It must have had limited appeal, as the manuscript tradition through which the letters survive is quite slender. In 1815 Fronto's correspondence was discovered in a single, damaged palimpsest made in the seventh century; it included 220 letters and fragments from a larger collection of his works."); Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (1979), p. 208 ("From the advent of printing on, one must deal with a continuous process of recovery and with a continuous development of techniques for investigating the past. Further discoveries have never ceased to be made...and in this sense the Renaissance has never come to an end. But more recent discoveries did come too late to be inserted into an undergraduate curriculum that was fixed, in a more or less permanent form, in the course of the sixteenth century.")

Item #644