Despite being recognized as one of the most renowned masters of ars dictaminis of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, the figure of Laurentius de Aquilegia has not received the attention that the importance of his work requires. Of his varied production as a master of dictamen , it has been his synoptic treatises that have aroused the most interest among scholars, to the point that his two great summae have lacked monographic studies so far. This essay focuses on one of them, the Summa dictaminis composita iuxta doctrinam Tullii . It proposes an update of the state of the question, provides new evidence on the manuscript tradition and analyzes its most relevant doctrinal aspects. This approach to the author’s work should serve as a first step to a future critical edition of the Summa .

It is a sustained concern for Aristophanes studies to assess the political commitments expressed in the comedic poet’s dramatic corpus. Though generally synoptic in describing his critique of democracy, political interpretations of Aristophanes’s plays diverge in justifying that critique as affirmative of democratic principles. This essay argues for considering the Aristophanic critique as external to democratic principles, on account of its assertion of the demos ’s basic incapacity for legitimate and effective rule. The essay concludes by identifying where engagement with the Aristophanic critique of democracy may clarify and challenge theories of artful discourse and political community supported by public and counterpublic studies.

This essay examines the supplicatory letter the Swedish-born Helena, marchioness of Northampton, addressed to Thomas Radcliffe, third earl of Sussex, in 1576 or 1577, hoping he would help her regain access to Elizabeth I. The essay situates the letter within the early modern patronage system and the court environment, but foremost within the field of early modern letter-writing in general, and the supplicatory letter in particular. The essay shows how a number of rhetorical strategies, designed to inspire pity and benevolence mainly through ethos and pathos , are employed to create positions for both supplicant and addressee. In this way, the letter reaches the desired goal of regaining royal presence. By looking at the letter through the frames of early modern letter-writing and more general rhetorical practise, the essay points to a tension between the letter’s stated sentiment of “utter confusion” and its highly formalised expression, indicative of the letter’s rhetorical situation and especially of the constraints related to its sender’s social status. The letter is transcribed in an appendix.

Il contributo indaga la Dispositio delle strutture compositive del Preludio in mi bemolle maggiore – BWV 552/1 ( Clavierübung III, 1739) – di Johann Sebastian Bach alla luce dell’ Institutio oratoria di Quintiliano. La retorica fu parte integrante dell’esperienza religiosa, culturale e musicale bachiana: partendo da questo assunto, si richiamano le precedenti letture simbolico-strutturali del Preludio ed il precedente accostamento storiografico di Quintiliano a Bach, dando ragione di questo nuovo. Si dimostra in che misura e sotto quali aspetti l’opera quintilianea potrebbe aver influenzato il Kantor della Thomaskirche , fungendo da base strutturale per la composizione presa in esame.

L' Odisseo attribuito ad Alcidamante è un discorso falso. Odisseo accusa Palamede con argomenti implausibili che finiscono per dimostrare più la malafede di Odisseo che la colpevolezza di Palamede. L'autore riprende schemi odissiaci già presenti in Omero e li ripropone attualizzandoli nel genere dell'orazione epidittico-giudiziaria. L'autore si serve di varianti mitiche rare o uniche, per alludere all'implausibilità degli argomenti sostenuti.

The first book of medieval Latin beast epic, Ysengrimus , relates imaginary trials. In the episodes of the stolen ham and the fishing, the characters, Ysengrin and Renart, imagine that they would convene an ecclesiastic assembly, a synod, and that they would plead their case. Their plead reverses right and wrong ( translatio criminis ), invents speeches to denigrate each other ( sermocinatio ), and seems to take the form of large digressions. These speeches, which have been considered as “interminable” and “wordy” by J. Mann and É. Charbonnier, can be reassessed through classical rhetoric. This paper aims to demonstrate that, in spite of the extent of these speeches' apparent rambling, we can extricate some rhetorical structures ( constitutiones ) from the judicial oratory. This is the first point of a speech that also uses prolixity as an “art of being right.”

Cicero's Pro Archia has historically been taken as a bona fide expression of humanism. In this article, I demonstrate how this reading of the Pro Archia has allowed the political and cultural tensions in the speech to remain hidden. Cicero's vision of Archias as an idealized amalgam sanitizes both the poetic and the cultural identity of his Syrian client in favour of a projection which combined generic “Greekness” with a politicized invocation of the Roman poet, Q. Ennius. Contextualizing the Pro Archia within its contemporary political moment reveals that Cicero is consciously constructing a narrative of Archias as a “good immigrant.”

This article amplifies the call for a paradigm shift across a range of comparative disciplines relevant to non-European cultures, that decentralizes rhetorical concepts from European traditions in comprehending non-European literary and philosophical practices. Such a post-Eurocentric perspective is necessary to both generate a fair comparative module that centralizes the emic (culture-specific) features of a language and to avoid Eurocentric misrepresentation of the non-European culture under consideration. This paper challenges the common academic position that Eurocentric traditions are foundational to understanding ancient Egyptian and Arabic literary systems. The article also considers the graphic nature of the core hieroglyphic script in comparison with Arabic to refute the modern obsession that concentrates on the verbal layers of the scripts and neglects their visual literariness.

In 1 Cor. 10:1–22, Paul deals with the role of Christ and his relationship to God. This is an important ethical topic that Paul deems necessary to discuss with the Corinthian believers. In order to make an effective, thus persuasive, argument, he follows the ancient Greco-Roman tradition of rhetoric and poetics. I argue that vv. 1–4 is Paul's introduction to his vivid representation of monotheism (vv. 5–22). As he presents his narrative of the wilderness events, he employs various rhetorical-poetic techniques to evoke in his hearers imaginative and emotional experiences that will transport them into a higher level of ethical consciousness, a new monotheistic reality in Christ.

The Cane Ridge Revival drew nearly twenty thousand participants, sparking the transformative Second Great Awakening. Barton Stone was the minister who organized and shared preaching responsibilities for the revival, and eventually, his disciples formed one of the largest American religious traditions, the Stone-Campbell Movement. In this paper, I examine portions of nine fictional dialogues published by Stone during the final year of his life, wherein he explicitly outlined the parameters of effective rhetoric or “useful preaching.” I argue that Stone developed a rhetorical theory that rebelled against authority by granting agency to the audience even in the processes of invention and interpretation, a theory that produced idiosyncratic theological convictions and a movement practically incapable of confessional unity.

Questo articolo propone una lettura del dialogo fra Trimalchione e il retore Agamennone (Petron. sat . 48, 4–7) fondata sull'analisi delle espressioni legate al mondo dell'insegnamento retorico a cui i due personaggi fanno ricorso: lo scambio di battute fra i due, apparentemente estemporaneo, segue in realtà l'andamento di una discussione tecnica propedeutica allo sviluppo di una controversia , secondo il procedere codificato nella prassi delle scuole di declamazione. Da questa lettura deriva, inoltre, un argomento in difesa del testo tràdito riguardo alle tre biblioteche di Trimalchione.