On September, 28th 1872 Nietzsche — a professor in Classical Philology since 1869 at the university of Basel — borrowed a newly published book from the university library: Die Sprache als Kunst by Gustav Gerber. Today both the book and its author would probably only be familiar to specialists in historical linguistics. The book must have made a strong impression on the young Nietzsche, although this is scarcely obvious from the few remarks on it made during that winter term.¹ However, comparing Gerber's 1871 book with Nietzsche's lectures on rhetoric from 1872/73,² it is clear that Nietzsche is not only indebted to Gerber but that he exploited him (and others) to such an extent that his lecture notes can be read as a kind of "collage."³