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CORNIFICIUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 174 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CORNIFICIUS , the author of a See also:

work on rhetorical figures, and perhaps of a See also:general See also:treatise (ars, rExvrt) on the See also:art of See also:rhetoric (See also:Quintilian, Instil., iii. I. 21, ix. 3. 89). He has been identified with the author of the four books of Rhetorica dedicated to a certain Q. Herennius and generally known under the See also:title of Auctor ad Herennium. The See also:chief See also:argument in favour of this identity is the fact that many passages quoted by Quintilian from Cornificius are reproduced in the Rhetorica. See also:Jerome, See also:Priscian and others attributed the work to See also:Cicero (whose De inventione was called Rhetorica prima, the Auctor ad Herennium, Rhetorica secunda) , while the claims of L. Aelius Stilo, M. See also:Antonius Gnipho, and Ateius Praetextatus to the authorship have been supported by See also:modern scholars. But it seems improbable that the question of authorship will ever be satisfactorily settled.

See also:

Internal indications point to the date of compositions as 86–82 n.c., the See also:period of Marian domination in See also:Rome. The unknown author, as may be inferred from the treatise itself, did not write to make See also:money, but to oblige his relative and friend Herennius, for whose instruction he promises to See also:supply other See also:works on ( See also:grammar, military matters and See also:political See also:administration. He newly invented pistons of Stoelzel and Bluemel patented in 1815. It was introduced into See also:Great See also:Britain and See also:France about 1830. There were at first only two pistons—for a whole See also:tone and for a See also:half tone—from which there naturally resulted gaps in the See also:chromatic See also:scale of the See also:instrument. The use of a See also:combination of pistons (see See also:BOMBARDON and VALVES) fails to give acoustically correct intervals, because the length of tubing thus thrown open is not of the theoretical length required to produce the See also:interval. A See also:tube about 4 ft. See also:long, such as that of the Bb See also:cornet, needs an additional length of about 3 in. to See also:lower the See also:pitch a semitone ; but, if this cornet has already been lowered one tone to the See also:key of Ab, the length of tube has increased some 6 in., and the 3-in. semitone See also:piston no longer adds sufficient tubing to produce a semitone of correct intona- tion. To the per- former falls the task of concealing the shortcomings of his instrument, and he therefore corrects the intonation by varying the See also:lip ten- See also:sion. At first the cornet was supplied expresses his .contempt for the See also:ordinary school rhetorician, the See also:hair-splitting dialecticians and their " sense of inability to speak, since they dare not even pronounce their own name for fear of expressing themselves ambiguously." Finally, he admits that rhetoric is not. the highest accomplishment, and that See also:philosophy is far more deserving of See also:attention. Politically, it is evident that he was a staunch supporter of the popular party. The first and second books of the Rhetorica treat of inventio and forensic rhetoric; the third, of dispositio, pronuntiatio, memoria, deliberative and See also:demonstrative rhetoric; the See also:fourth, of elocutio. The chief aims of the author are conciseness and clearness (breviter et dilucide scribere).

In accordance with this, he ignores all rhetorical subtleties, the useless and irrelevant See also:

matter introduced by the Greeks to make the art appear more difficult of acquisition; where possible, he uses See also:Roman terminology for technical terms, and supplies his own examples of the various rhetorical figures. The work as a whole is considered very valuable. The question of the relation of Cicero's De invention to the Rhetorica has been much discussed. Three views were held: that the Auctor copied from Cicero; that they were See also:independent of each other, parallelisms being due to their having been taught by the same rhetorician at Rome; that Cicero made extracts from the Rhetorica, as well as from other authorities, in his usual eclectic See also:fashion. The latest editor, F. See also:Marx, puts forward the theory that Cicero and the Auctor have not produced See also:original works, but have merely given the substance of two TEXvat (both emanating from the Rhodian school); that neither used the TEXvat. directly, but reproduced the revised version of the rhetoricians whose school they attended, the introductions alone being their own work; that the lectures on which the Ciceronfan treatise was based were delivered before the lectures attended by the Auctor. The best modern See also:editions are by C. L. See also:Kayser (186o), in the See also:Tauchnitz, and W. See also:Friedrich (1889), in the Teubner edition of Cicero's works, and separately by F. Marx (1894) ; see also De scholiis Rhetorices ad Herennium, by M. Wisen (1905).

Full references to authorities will be found in the articles by Brzoska in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie (1901); M. Schanz, Geschichte der romischen Litt., i. (2nd ed., pp: 387-394) ; and See also:

Teuffel-See also:Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Lit. (Eng. trans., p. 162) see also See also:Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, bk. iv. ch. 13.

End of Article: CORNIFICIUS

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