Historia in Theodor Zwinger's Theatrum Humanae Vitae

Abstract

One of the ways in which historia reached its widest audience in the Renaissance was in collections short passages excerpted from various historical sources and sorted under topical headings, often called exempla. The number of works printed in this genre broadly conceived as collections of short segments of anecdotal historical material is considerable. They include Latin works, ranging from ancient to Renaissance compositions and typically sorted either alphabetically or systematically, but also vernacular ones, most famously the Silva de varia lecion of Pedro Mexia, which is miscellaneously arranged and was the object of numerous editions, translations and imitations in six languages, from 1540 to roughly 1682. In Latin the genre also ranges in size from portable octavo editions, e.g. of Valerius Maximus' Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX, to the largest folios, such as Theodor Zwinger's Theatrum Humanae Vitae (from 1565 to 1604) and its sequel in 8 volumes, the Magnum theatrum humanae vitae (from 1631 to 1707). The number and extent of these collections of historical excerpts is evidence of an ample early modern readership, both learned and less learned, for the stuff of exemplar history presented ready-made for easy consumption.