Rethoric, Literary Criticism and Canon in Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 10.1

Abstract

The literary canon implies a systematic and hierarchic selection of writers, works and genres in order to delimit an imitable model corpus connected to the
pedagogic instruction. This paper analyzes the particular process of formation and conformation of the canon –as well as its reception and transformation from
previous canons– established by Quintilian in the Book 10 of his Institutio Oratoria, in order to demonstrate that the criteria of selection that guide the canon exceed the mere didactic function.