Cornelii Valerii Ultraiectini In universam benedicendi [sic] rationem tabula, summam artis rhetoricae complectens

Two kinds of partition: one, which shows the state and head of the cause; the other, which shows the parts and the order.

It is an enumeration of the parts of the proposition. It is twofold: one, which is used only in the judicial genus, by which we open what is agreed upon with the adversaries, and what is left in controversy, in this way: We confess that Clytemnestra, who had killed the father of this man, was killed by Orestes: but whether it was permitted for a son to avenge the death of a father by the slaughter of his mother, that is in controversy. The other is that which may be used in all kinds of causes, by which we explain how many and about which things we are about to speak, and we show what order we are about to follow in speaking: so that it appears what is to be said, about what matter, and in what place: which thing makes the listener most docile, while they pre-know what follows in order, and which of those parts that have been proposed, always waiting avidly: and the same brings the greatest light to the memory, useful and necessary not only for the orator, but also for anyone debating about any matter whatsoever.

Vices of partition. Quintil. book 4. last chapter, at the end.

But here one must see that the partition is not obscure, not too long and multiple, and that confused kinds are not entangled with the parts. For it is commended most by three virtues: brevity, absoluteness, and paucity; and it is comprehended in hardly more than three or sometimes four members. Docility also contains a certain distribution of the speech, as if, about to speak of laws, you promise first that you will commemorate their dignity: then the necessary use for human affairs: then you set out in a brief narration what the characters of men are at this time, from which you may appear not to have undertaken this task of pleading in vain: soon you apply the partition of the matter itself proposed, and distribute the law into written and unwritten law; and you say that the written law of the Romans pleases you, because nothing is more equitable, nothing