Katherine A. East - The Radicalization of Cicero

The Author(s) 2017

Katherine A. East 1

(1)

In 1712 John Toland (16701722)a man whose reputation for directing his intellectual writing towards provocation, heterodoxy, and trouble-making was well establishedcomposed in Latin a work entitled Cicero Illustratus , in which he laid out his plans for completing a new edition of Ciceros complete works. Cicero Illustratus is Tolands attempt to vindicate that claim, using a combination of erudition , scholarly strategy, and vigorous polemic to argue for both the necessity of a new edition, and for his own ability to successfully execute the task. The proposed edition of Ciceros works may never have been completed, but the picture Toland presents in Cicero Illustratus is comprehensive, embracing not only his assessment of the value of Cicero and the processes whereby that value had been eroded, but also his plans for all the tasks he as editor would be undertaking, from criticism of the text to composition of the prefatory life to the printing type which would be used. The result is a treatise of 73 pages which encompasses myriad themes relating to the situation and status of Cicero in early Enlightenment England, while also subjecting the Ciceronian editorial tradition to a critical review, and addressing the question of the appropriate conduct of textual scholarship . A consistent presence in these deliberations is Toland himself, whose capabilities as an editor and whose understanding of Cicero remain an explicit and implicit concern throughout.

Permeating this unique work is crucial new material relating to the cultural legacy of the ancient world, the history of scholarship , and the intellectual history of the early Enlightenment . Cicero Illustratus itself, previously unpublished, and in scholarship discussed as an independent text only briefly towards the end of Matthew Foxs Ciceros Philosophy of History , is here made fully accessible for the first time. As a consequence, topics that have previously been neglected in scholarship are given the opportunity for long overdue consideration. First, the history and conduct of the Ciceronian editorial tradition in the age of the printed book are the subjects of extensive criticism throughout Cicero Illustratus , functioning as a touchstone against which Toland communicated his own editorial plans. This demands acknowledgement of the emphatically influential role these editions, and their transmission of the Ciceronian text, played in determining how Cicero and his works were received and understood, a role which has been previously confined to textual scholarship with minimal reference to the broader cultural implications of these editions. Second, the place of classical scholarship in John Tolands works requires investigation in order to contextualise Cicero Illustratus , directing scholarly attention towards a facet of Tolands intellectual horizon too often overlooked in favour of the gallery of the great men of the radical tradition usually at the centre of attempts to deconstruct Tolands thought. Establishing the classical sphere in Tolands oeuvre has notable repercussions, most significant of which is the question, has the importance of Cicero to the radicalism of the early Enlightenment been fundamentally misunderstood?