The Institutio oratoria has undergone many complete editions since it was first printed in Rome in 1470 by Campanus. Among frequently used modern editions are those of Charles Halm (Leipzig, Germany: Teubner, 1863) and Ludwig Radermacher, 2 vols. (Leipzig, Germany: Teubner, 1907 and 1935). H. E. Butler uses the Halm text as the basis for his Loeb Classical Library edition of 1921.
The best modern edition, however, is that of Michael Winterbottom, Institutionis oratoriae libri duodecim (Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1970). Winterbottom has also published an extensive series of editorial comments on individual passages from the text, Problems in Quintilian (London: University of London Institute of Classical Studies, Bulletin Supplement no. 25, 1970). The third section (“Noctes Quintilianae” 61–218) may be of interest even to non-Latin readers since Winterbottom often discusses general questions in relation to the technical points involved in editing the text. See also The Minor Declamations Ascribed to Quintilian edited with commentary by Michael Winterbottom (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1984). Again, Winterbottom’s lucid notes are extremely valuable.
Single books have been edited several times. Perhaps the most useful for the general reader would be F. H. Colson, ed., M. Fabii Quintiliani institutionis oratoriae liber I (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 1924). In addition to the text of the first book with elaborate notes, Colson provides an invaluable introduction to the life, influence, and theory of the Roman author.
Another edition of the first book is that of Charles Fierville, M. F. Quintiliani de institutione oratoria liber primus (Paris: n.p., 1890). Among several useful appendixes in this version is the Latin text of the twelfth-century abstract that Étienne de Rouen made of the Institutio oratoria. Fierville’s text of this piece is transcribed from Bibliothèque Nationale Ms. Fonds Lat. 14146.
Book 10 has been edited separately with commentary by William Peterson, M. Fabii Quintiliani institutionis oratoriae liber decimus (Oxford, UK: n.p., 1891). Peterson’s introduction is notable for its excellent discussion of literary criticism in the Institutio oratoria and for its treatment of Quintilian’s own writing style. The book has now been reissued (New York: Sophron, 2013) with a foreword by James J. Murphy.
R. G. Austin has edited the final book, Quintiliani institutionis oratoriae liber XII (Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1948; revised edition, 1953). The introduction contains a useful bibliography.
Selections from Quintilian have been published by several translators. Perhaps the most important of these is William Smail, Quintilian on Education, Being a Translation of Selected Passages (Oxford, UK: Oxford UP, 1938). Catherine R. Smith also uses the title Quintilian on Education: Selections from the Institutes of Oratory (New York: New York University Store [multigraphed], 1936). A miscellany of partial translation, partial paraphrase is presented by Charles Little, Quintilian: The Schoolmaster, 2 vols. (Nashville, TN: George Peabody, 1951). One of the declamations once ascribed to Quintilian has also been translated: Robinson Ellis, The Tenth Declamation of the Pseudo-Quintilian (London: H. Frowde, 1911).
A useful French translation is that of Henri Bornecque, 4 vols. (Paris: Garnier Freres, 1933–34), with an accompanying Latin text. See also Jean Cousin, Quintilien, Institution oratoire, I-VII (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1975–80). Mieczyslaw Brazok published a Polish version of Books 1, 2, and 10, Ksztakenie M OlVCY (Wroclaw, Poland: n.p., 1951).
There is a useful German translation by Helmut Rahn, Ausbildung des Redners: Zwölf Bücher, with a critical edition of the Latin text (Darmstadt, Germany: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1972).
Adriano Pennacini has used a unique method in his Quintiliano (Turin, Italy: Einaudi, 2001), providing Italian translations of the twelve books of the Institutio oratoria, each by a separate author.
Quintilian’s book was first translated into English in 1755 by W. Guthrie under the title of Quintilian’s Institutes of Eloquence: The Art of Speaking in Public in Every Character and Capacity, 2 vols. (London: R. Dutton, 1755). It should be noted that Guthrie takes some liberties with the text, including idiosyncrasies of translation and a tendency to omit whole passages without notice to the reader.
J. Patsall translated the work nineteen years later under the title Institutes of the Orator, 2. vols. (London: B. Law, 1774). This translation also omits some passages.
One of the most popular translations and the basis of the text printed here, was that of the Reverend Watson, completed in 1856 and published in two volumes by George Bell and Sons of London under the title Quintilian’s Institutes of Oratory, or, Education of an Orator. The work was included in the Bohn’s Library series published by Bell and was reprinted several times up to 1903. Watson used the Latin text of G. Spalding, published between 1798 and 1811.
The translation of H. E. Butler, with accompanying Latin text, was published in the Loeb Classical Library series in 1921, The Institutio oratoria of Quintilian with an English Translation, 4 vols. (London: William Heinemann; Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1921). See also H. E. Butler, trans., Quintilian as Educator: Selections from the Institutio oratoria of Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (New York: Twayne, 1974).
The most recent text and English translation is that of Donald A. Russell, Quintilian: The Orator’s Education, 5 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2001), Loeb Classical Library. This improved edition has many more explanatory notes than the preceding 1921 Loeb Library edition by Butler.
An extremely useful re-edition of Book 2 by Tobias Reinhardt and Michael Winterbottom (Oxford, UK: Oxford UP, 2006) includes extensive commentaries on the text and a thorough exploration of sources.
For a concise treatment of the current state of Quintilian studies, see Jorge Fernandez Lopez, “Quintilian as Rhetorician and Teacher,” in A Companion to Roman Rhetoric, ed. William Dominik and Jon Hall (Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 2007), 307–22.
Also, for an appreciative treatment of the way Quintilian uses his sources, see the rather mistitled chapter “The Rhetoric of Rhetorical Theory” by Erik Gunderson in The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rhetoric, ed. Erik Gunderson (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2009), 109–25. The essay is entirely about Quintilian, despite the title.