medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Sat, 12 Oct 2002 19:20:01 -0400
Phil Feller <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
>... this type of rhetoric falls under the general category of "epideictic" ("genus demonstrativum" in Latin). According to Aristotle, epideictic speech praises and blames, dealing in matters of virtue and vice. For Augustine (and Cicero), the term used for blame is "vituperationes" (De Doctrina Christiana, IV 38). Unfortunately, I only have access to the print edition of the PL, and can't determine other occurrances of the term.
But, Phil, you do have electronic access to the Ad Herennium through the site pointed to in my post of yesterday responding to this very question (and also identifying the term "vituperatio"). That electronic text is part of Steven Wight's "Medieval Diplomatic and the 'ars dictandi'" hosted by the University of Pavia's "Scrineum" site. If you go to Wight's main index http://dobc.unipv.it/scrineum/wight/index.htm
and scroll down to near the foot of the page you'll find links for digitized texts of both the Ad Herennium and Cicero's De Inventione. Searching these will give you more instances of "vituperatio".
>Augustine himself writes only about what style to use in epideictic speech, and does not (that I know of) address which topics are appropriate. Augustine does, however, follow other ancient rhetorical theorists in writing that personal character was important to the rhetor (Arististotle considered ethos to be one of the forms of artistic proof).
>
In the Hellenistic system followed by the Latin manuals of rhetoric most widely used in the Latin Middle Ages "epideictic" is one of several +kinds+ of oratory (along with judicial and deliberative). Because epideictic +speeches+ (display oratory of little pragmatic consequence) are 1) what get referred to most often in introductory summaries using this term and 2) not of frequent occurrence in the surviving literature of the Latin Middle Ages, I avoided this term as potentially misleading, alluding to it merely under its standard explicative rubric of "praise and blame." But practical examples and our own experience remind us that elements of epideictic oratory may be employed in deliberative and judicial contexts as well. And, as Megan has probably already discovered if she's been reading aound in Ad Herennium, Bk. 3, the manuals recognize this as well (cf. Ad Herennium 3.15 [http://lettere.unipv.it/scrineum/wight/herm3.htm#3.15],
section beginning _Nec hoc genus causae_). So while searching for pertinent bibliography under "epideictic" might help, the more specific term (and therefore the one to search with first) is "vituperatio."
A good way into all this from a medieval perspective is John O. Ward's article "From Antiquity to the Renaissance: Glosses and Commentaries on Cicero's _Rhetorica_," in James J. Murphy, ed., _Medieval Eloquence: Studies in the Theory and Practice of Medieval Rhetoric_ (Berkeley: Univ. of California Pr., 1978), pp. 25-67 (pp. 50-51 on treatments of praise and blame).
Best again,
John Dillon
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