The Radicalization of Cicero

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. Introduction

   • Katherine A. East

   Pages 1-24

3. Editing Cicero

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25

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   2. The Editorial Project

      • Katherine A. East

      Pages 27-39

   3. The Book: Constructing the Edition

      • Katherine A. East

      Pages 41-57

   4. The Author: Composing the Prefatory Life

      • Katherine A. East

      Pages 59-87

   5. The Words: Criticising the Text

      • Katherine A. East

      Pages 89-119

   6. The Commentary: Interpreting the Text

      • Katherine A. East

      Pages 121-150

4. Interpreting Cicero

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-151

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   2. Toland’s Ciceronianism

      • Katherine A. East

      Pages 153-168

   3. The Commonwealthman: Cicero and Toland’s Republican Discourse

      • Katherine A. East

      Pages 169-194

   4. The Rationalist: Cicero and Toland’s War on Priestcraft

      • Katherine A. East

      Pages 195-224

   5. Conclusion: Cicero Remade?

      • Katherine A. East

      Pages 225-230

5. Back Matter

   Pages 231-283

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This book uses a previously overlooked Neo-Latin treatise, Cicero Illustratus, to provide insight into the status and function of the Ciceronian tradition at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and consequently to more broadly illuminate the fate of that tradition in the early Enlightenment. Cicero Illustratus itself is the first subject for inquiry, mined for what its deliberately erudite and colorfully polemical passages of scholarly stratagems reveal about Ciceronian scholarship and the motives for exploring it within the context of early Enlightenment thought. It also includes an analysis of the role played by the Ciceronian tradition in the broader political and radical movements that existed in the Enlightenment, with particular attention paid to Cicero’s unexpectedly prominent position in major political and philosophical Republican and Erastian works. The subject of this book together with the conclusions reached will provide scholars and students with crucial new material relating to the classical tradition, the history of scholarship, and the intellectual history of the early Enlightenment.

• Neo-Latin treatise in Enlightenment thought
• John Toland
• Ciceronian tradition
• intellectual history of the early Enlightenment
• Cicero Illustratus
• Cicero
• Enlightenment thought

“No one has covered this ground before, and Katherine East reveals an awful lot that is new, presenting her findings in an accessible and intelligent fashion. The scholarship is impeccable, and the writing is clarity itself. Scholars of John Toland and the reception of Cicero’s ideas in early modern Europe will be grateful for East’s labors.” (Richard Whatmore, Professor of Modern History, University of St Andrews, Scotland)

• Newcastle University , Northumberland, United Kingdom

  Katherine A. East

Katherine A. East is the Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Newcastle University, UK. 

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