Latin Rhetoric and Education in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Variorum Collected Studies)

The essays in this volume deal with the history of rhetoric and education for the thousand years from the early Middle Ages to the European Renaissance. They represent the author's pioneering efforts over four decades to piece together a kind of mosaic which will provide elements necessary to construct a history of that thousand years of language activity. Some essays deal with individual writers like Giles of Rome, Peter Ramus, Gulielmus Traversanus, or Antonio Nebrija, some focus on the influence of Cicero and Quintilian and other ancient sources. The essays dealing specifically with education open up different inquiries into the ways language use was promoted, and by whom. Others explore the relations between Latin rhetoric and medieval English literature and, finally, several deal with the impact of printing, a subject still not completely understood. Rhetoric is the study of past discourse to plan for future discourse, explains Murphy and assembles facsimiles of 20 essays he has written over four decades into a kind of mosaic to provide the elements necessary to construct a history of a thousand years of language activity in Europe. Some deal with Medieval and Renaissance writers such as Peter Ramus, Gulielmus Traversanus, and Antonio Nebrija while others look at the classical sources they and their contemporaries drew from, including Cicero and Quintilian. Those specifically considering education look at how language use was promoted and by whom. Others explore the relations between rhetoric and Medieval English literature, the impact of printing, and other topics. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR