Abstract

In this study, metrical clauses are used to analyze the critical reconstruction and rhetorical scheme of Tertullian’s treatise on prayer as a preliminary study to an edition of the work. In the first part, the description and frequency of the clauses of the De oratione is presented, followed by an analysis of some variants of the text from the metrical point of view, and then a study of the clauses in the biblical quotations and in the translation of the paternoster offered by Tertullian. As a culmination of the Paper, the structure of the treatise is analyzed from the distribution of the most frequent metrical clauses. A final appendix contains the clauses of the treatise.