Renaissance Debates on Rhetoric

by Rebhorn, Wayne A.

• ISBN13: 9780801482069
• ISBN10: 0801482062
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-12-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

Throughout the European Renaissance, authors famous and obscure debated the nature, goals, and value of rhetoric. In a host of treatises, handbooks, letters, and orations, written in both Latin and the vernacular, they attempted to assess the central role that rhetoric clearly played in their culture. Was rhetoric a valuable tool of legitimation for rulers or a dangerous instrument of resistance to political and religious authority? Would its employment maintain the social hierarchy or foster social mobility? Was rhetoric merely the art of lies or was it a means to arrive at the only form of truth available to human beings? In this fascinating volume, Wayne A. Rebhorn enables modern-day readers to follow Renaissance thinkers as they struggle with these and other crucial questions about rhetoric. Arranged chronologically, the twenty-five selections in this anthology, most of which have never before appeared in English, include key texts by Petrarch, Valla, Erasmus, Vives, Melanchthon, Ramus, Wilson, Amyot, and Bacon. All the selections have been fully annotated and have headnotes providing essential background information. In addition, the volume features a biographical glossary of frequently mentioned historical and mythological figures, a comprehensive index, and a detailed bibliography.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1	(13)
Francis Petrarch	14	(4)
Letter to Tommaso da Messina, Concerning the Study of Eloquence	15	(3)
Coluccio Salutati	18	(9)
On Petrarch's Eloquence	19	(8)
George of Trebizond (Trapezuntius)	27	(8)
From Five Books on Rhetoric	28	(3)
From An Oration in Praise of Eloquence	31	(4)
Lorenzo Valla	35	(7)
From the Refinements of the Latin Language	36	(6)
Rudolph Agricola	42	(15)
From Three Books Concerning Dialectical Invention	43	(14)
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola	57	(11)
Letter to Ermolao Barbaro	58	(10)
Desiderius Erasmus	68	(8)
From Ciceronianus	69	(7)
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa	76	(6)
From On the Uncertainty and Vanity of the Arts and Sciences	77	(5)
Juan Luis Vives	82	(15)
From On the Causes of the Corruption of the Arts	83	(10)
From On Teaching the Disciplines	93	(4)
Philip Melanchthon	97	(14)
From The Praise of Eloquence	98	(13)
Sperone Speroni	111	(17)
From Dialogue on Rhetoric	112	(16)
Jacques Amyot	128	(12)
From An Epitome of Royal Eloquence	129	(11)
Anton Maria de' Conti	140	(12)
From A Dialogue on Eloquence	140	(12)
Peter Ramus	152	(9)
From Logic	153	(8)
John Jewel	161	(12)
Oration against Rhetoric	162	(11)
Thomas Wilson	173	(10)
From the Art of Rhetoric	174	(9)
Francesco Patrizi	183	(20)
From Ten Dialogues on Rhetoric	184	(19)
George Puttenham	203	(15)
From The Art of English Poesy	204	(14)
Michel de Montaigne	218	(5)
On the Vanity of Words	219	(4)
Henry Peacham	223	(10)
From the Garden of Eloquence	224	(9)
Juan de Guzman	233	(11)
From The First Part of Rhetoric	233	(11)
Guillaume du Vair	244	(17)
From On French Eloquence	244	(17)
Francis Bacon	261	(12)
From The New Organon	262	(3)
From The Advancement of Learning	265	(6)
From On the Wisdom of the Ancients	271	(2)
Nicholas Caussin	273	(11)
From On Sacred and Profane Eloquence	274	(10)
Jean-Francois Le Grand	284	(11)
From A Discourse on French Rhetoric	284	(11)
Biographical Glossary	295	(14)
Bibliography	309	(6)
Index	315