Per il commento al De inventione del “magister Menegaldus”

The paper deals with the commentary on Cicero, De inventione which is commonly attributed to the “magister Menegaldus” (11th century) and which – although still unpublished – represents the first systematic commentary on the classical rhetorical handbook after Marius Victorinus (4th century). The paper shows in particular how the medieval glosae on the classical auctor propose many interesting changes which modify and really ‘update’ the auctoritas represented by Victorinus; and several among these changes are immediately accepted in another significant commentary on Cicero, De inventione, that is, the exposition of “magister Guillielmus” (perhaps William of Champeaux, 11th-12th century). The passages from Menegaldus which are here considered can be divided in two main fields: the wide employment of quotations from other auctores (here e.g. Terence, Sallust, Vergil) and the references to the social and cultural context in which Menegaldus lives. These passages clearly point out that the medieval magister wants either to illustrate in a better way many rhetorical rules (which were explained by Cicero and Victorinus only in theory) or to make these rules nearer to his public