A Handbook to Sixteenth-Century Rhetoric

First published in 1968, A Handbook to Sixteenth-Century Rhetoric is designed primarily to assist the student of renaissance literature in the science of rhetoric. It gathers together the information provided by the various different authorities who contributed to the education of the renaissance author, particularly the writer in English. These authorities include key classical rhetoricians he would probably have read, well-known and important renaissance rhetoricians, and the writers of vernacular treatises and of major school textbooks. The information is arranged in a schematic and tabular form, so that enquiry can start from the object, the particular rhetorical form as it appears in a given literary text. The core of the book is the central section on elocutio, the art of using the devices of rhetorical ornament.