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for searching only. 140 SMALL LATINE AND LESSE GREEKE
this kind of language to you andmy other former pupils to the very best of my abilities [pro virili ac ingerdj captu], though not all every time they occurred, yet the most of those which appeared more elegant, so that the sense of that which was being read might be the more certainly and without obscurity perceived by you, and at the same time you might have formulas for writing and speaking which could be imitated in habitual use. Further, because, except the tables of Mosellanus you had nothing in hand of tropes and figures . . . it seemed advisable to collect out of select authors into this epitome the tropes and schemes which are in more frequent use with the poets, historians, and rhetoricians, whereby also in this part, as I would ad-vise in grammatical matters, I might furnish you an occasion, and point out the way to the reading of those authors whence this epitome has been excerpted. In which indeed this order (which Philip Melanchthon, a man of smooth and elegant eloquence, seems first to have attained) has by me been observed . . . . This Epitome therefore accept with that mind which I have dedicated it to you as wellas also to absent pupils, that is with a joyful, candid and benevolent [one]. Receive it, as they say, with outstretched hands, read it, reread it, and inscribe it in your mind, then put to the use of writing and speaking, since besides (as I have frequently taught you) without meditation and use, every art is void of all utility whatever. Which if you do, with-out doubt the doors of the Muses will be opened for you. Farewell, and plead to God for me in your prayerlets 8
Susenbrotus has written his work upon the scheme of organization furnished by Melanchthon and as a substitute for that of Mosellanus. Into this scheme, he aims systematically to collect, correct, explain, and illustrate in detail all the tropes and schemes of both grammar and rhetoric. He lists as his authorities Cicero (Ad Herennium), Quintilian, Trapezuntius, Erasmus, Melanchthon, Diomedes, Donatus, Mancinellus, Capella, together with the work of Chirius Fortunatianus on Capella, and that of Veltkirchius on the Copia of Erasmus. He tabulates his tropes and schemes, with the following result, "Summa Troporii ac Schematum in hac Epitome sp2." But this number does not include the minor divisions and subdivisions. One may readily imagine the hours of drill which would be required to infix these upon memory. But some such system was necessary if one was to understand the treatment of the tropes and schemes in Erasmus, Quintilian, or even Ad Herennium. Both Erasmus in Copia, and Quintilian for the most part assume that the reader knows the particular figure whose fine points are being discussed. This is even more true of Cicero. Some such compilation as that of Susenbrotus was therefore necessary, as he himself says.
8 I translate from my copy, Tiguri, 1565, but have compared with the copies belonging to the University of Illinois Library. I am indebted to the University of Chicago for the loan of its edition published Tiguri, i S7o, at a time when neither I nor my University Library had a copy.
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