Ciceronianism

thumb|Title page from Nizolio's Observationes in Ciceronem (1561 edition) Ciceronianism was the tendency among the Renaissance humanists to imitate the language and style of Cicero (106–43 BC) and hold it up as a model of Latin. The term was coined in the 19th century from the much older term ciceronianus, "a Ciceronian". That term is contrasted with christianus (Christian) in Jerome in the 4th century. Erasmus employs it the same way in the title of his dialogue Ciceronianus (1528). During the Renaissance, however, the term could have both positive and negative connotations, depending on whether slavish or creative imitation was in view.

Cicero's writing was already considered classical by Quintilian in the 1st century. He was admired for his style in the Middle Ages but only his De inventione and Topica were widely known, and his language had little influence on Medieval Latin. His rise to preeminence began with Petrarch's discovery of the Epistulae ad Atticum in 1345 and with the discovery of De oratore, Orator, and Brutus by in 1421. It culminated in Pietro Bembo establishing a Ciceronian style for official papal documents in the 16th century. By that time, there was also a robust anti-Ciceronianism, as exemplified by Erasmus' Ciceronianus. Against Erasmsus, Julius Caesar Scaliger wrote his Oratio pro Cicerone contra Desiderium Erasmum ('Speech for Cicero against Erasmus', 1531–1537) and Étienne Dolet his pamphlet Erasmianus (1535).