Geoffrey of Vinsauf’s Master Trope: The Development of the Doctrine of Transsumptio

In this article, I trace the evolution of Geoffrey of Vinsauf’s doctrine of transsumptio as it developed from his Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi (late 12^th century) to the Poetria nova (1202–1213). Although scholars have conflated transsumptio with translatio (or metaphor), this article argues that transsumptio is Geoffrey’s attempt to schematize how occupying a position of difference (or the transference of the self into an alternate mode of being) reveals metaphorical possibility in language. I close by imputing the development of Geoffrey’s doctrine of transsumptio to a reinvestigation of the Rhetorica ad Herennium between composing his two major treatises.