Author
Marcus Tullius Cicero is documented in Fuller’s letters, published essays, reading notebooks, and manuscripts (1820–1845). One work is named, most often in Letter to Timothy Fuller, and the most intensive engagement recorded is “analyzed”.
Harvard College Library loan
Charged out of Gore Hall on the card of Richard Frederick Fuller, Margaret's brother and then a Harvard senior; women could not borrow in their own name. Household access, not proof of her reading — not counted toward engagements. The full ledger →
Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this author is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →
Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had Marcus Tullius Cicero’s work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.
“I learn a portion of Tacitus every day, and am writing a translation of Cicero against Cataline.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · Cambridge. 18th Dec 1823
Engagement type Translated automatically qualifies; she is writing a translation of Cicero's Catiline orations.
“We have sought to interpret Plato mainly by himself, and by the aid, on the one hand, of his jealous rival, Aristotle, and on the other, of his enthusiastic admirer, Cicero.”
This page brings together documented engagements currently identified within the Fuller Reading Worlds catalog.
Selected passages from Fuller’s own writings, in chronological order.
“I have got through Virgil and I shall go into Cicero as soon as I go to school. I do not know what to do for want of a Cicero.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
“I am writing a translation of Cicero against Cataline.”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Inferred Fuller states she is "writing a translation of Cicero against Cataline," referring unmistakably to Cicero's Catilinarian Orations (In Catilinam, 63 BCE), the four orations against Lucius Sergius Catilina and a standard Latin school text of the period.
“I feel myself rather degraded from Cicero's Oratory to One and two are how many It is rather a change is it not?”
Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. I. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Inferred Fuller contrasted her previous study of Cicero's oratorical works in Latin with the elementary arithmetic now required at Prescott's school, suggesting she had been reading standard Latin rhetorical texts such as De Oratore or selected speeches before arriving at Groton in 1824. Her reference to "Cicero's Oratory" reflects a retrospective comparison of her intellectual level.
“We have sought to interpret Plato mainly by himself, and by the aid, on the one hand, of his jealous rival, Aristotle, and on the other, of his enthusiastic admirer, Cicero.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Plato Against the Atheists . . ." New-York Daily Tribune, 14 May 1845. · 14 May 1845
Undated
Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.
“not upon Cicero's ground because I have lived them well”
Fuller, Margaret. "Notebook: Sir Thomas Browne." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (87); Box 6 (87).
Inferred This alludes most likely to De Senectute (On Old Age), where Cicero's Cato expresses contentment with his life.
“Et Ciceron nous apprend, je ne sais plus où que ce morceau était couvert d'applaudissemens.”
Fuller, Margaret. "Extracts from De Maistre." Houghton Library, Harvard University.
This is a tertiary reference: Fuller transcribed De Maistre quoting Cicero who quoted Ennius.