Resumen: En este artículo se estudia la obra In Topica Ciceronis (1550) de Sebastián Fox Morcillo, una obra casi desconocida por la escasez de ejemplares que conservamos. La obra contiene dos comentarios, una paraphrasis y unos scholia . En la paráfrasis se sigue el hilo doctrinal de la obra ciceroniana, pero el parafraseador amplía su exposición con abundantes enseñanzas procedentes de la renovada dialéctica humanística. En los escolios se insiste en que los Topica de Cicerón siguen por modelo el tratado homónimo de Aristóteles. Conciliando a ambos autores, Fox nos ofrece una visión de la dialéctica, especialmente de la parte inventiva y tópica, muy cercana a la de Agrícola y Melanchthon, pues para él se trata de una ciencia instrumental orientada a facilitar los estudios de ciencias superiores como la filosofía, que es la meta que Fox, de vocación esencialmente filosófica, desea alcanzar.

Abstract: This article argues that in his Philippos (Isoc. 5.149), Isocrates reinterprets the Socratic daimonion , transforming it from an inner ethical sign into a divine power legitimizing political action. Embedded in the speech's broader anti-Socratic polemic, this alteration aligns with Isocrates' conception of the politikos logos as a practical, audience-directed discourse. The daimonion passage thus exposes the philosophical foundations of Isocratean rhetoric: divine sanction for the interdependence of logos and praxis . By invoking a divine mandate that unites logos and praxis , Isocrates presents his logoi as performative texts capable of guiding Philip II of Macedon toward the common political good of Greece.

Abstract: This study explores the moral character ( ēthos ) of metic litigants and non-litigants in select forensic orations of public nature in the Demosthenic corpus and argues the ad hoc socio-economic standing of metics, their legal status, and their occupations were critical factors in constructing elaborate and complex metic portrayals (individual or collective) in forensic narratives. The evidence shows negative portrayals of metic men and women, but metics were not invariably depicted as the malevolent "other." Taking as its starting point the Aristotelian teachings about constructing ēthos in forensic narratives, which ought themselves to be ēthikai , this analysis draws attention to legal status as a critical factor in constructing moral character, and in more nuanced and complex ways than contemporary, 4th-century BCE rhetorical theory would advise. Provided these portrayals were curated to appeal to large panels of citizen dikastai , these rhetorical portrayals of metics in court may shed light on ambivalent Athenian attitudes towards metics.

Abstract: This paper examines the reception of the pseudo-Quintilianic Declamationes maiores in the 14th and 15th centuries, highlighting in particular the important role of Lorenzo Valla's Elegantie lingue Latine as a medium for humanistic engagement with these rhetorical texts. Calderini, teaching at the Studium of Rome, used the Declamationes maiores as a study text, demonstrating a practical application of these declamations in the context of humanist pedagogy. Poliziano, on the other hand, although he did not engage directly with the Declamationes maiores , still occasionally cited the controversiae in his commentaries. Together, these examples illustrate that, for humanists of the late fifteenth century, access to, understanding of, and engagement with the Declamationes maiores were often mediated by Valla's Elegantie , which served as a conduit for their interpretative practices and as a source for quotations.

Abstract: Cicero's preface to De inventione 1 shows that his early understanding of the interdependence of philosophy and oratory, with particular emphasis on the importance of philosophy, was more advanced than it is usually thought. The thesis or the general question that opens the treatise showcases Cicero's ability to present Greek technical knowledge about rhetoric as a part of a broader—we may say philosophical—problem, foreshadowing the "thetic method" showcased in his later works. Both the preface to De inventione 1 and Cicero's criticism of Hermagoras's views on thesis at De inventione 1.8 reflect the influence of Philo of Larissa, suggesting that the treatise was not finished before 88 BCE.

Abstract: This article adds to readings of Book Two of Desiderius Erasmus's De duplici copia rerum ac verborum commentarii duo that emphasize the relationship of the rationes locupletandi to style and invention by re-reading this text with an eye toward structural invention. In doing so, this paper explores Erasmus's use of the Rhetorica ad Herennium and Quintilian's Institutio oratoria , as well as observations by Erasmus's contemporaries, to consider the extent to which the composition of Book Two may have been influenced by structural invention.

Abstract: Robert Herrick's central oxymoronic trope in Hesperides (1648) of diligent negligence has traditionally been understood in general aesthetic terms. This essay argues that this trope, particularly as evoked in the poem "Delight in Disorder," relates especially to the art of rhetoric and that it had special currency in the language of curiosity deployed in the rhetorical discourse of the period, especially in the area of preaching. The essay begins by situating Herrick's poem in relation to contemporary rhetorical thought distilled, from Cicero via Justus Lipsius, in John Hoskyns's Directions for Speech and Style and expressed in the sartorial metaphor of Herrick's poem. It then turns to contemporary homiletic discourse to tie these ideas into the language of curiosity as applied to questions of arrangement ( dispositio )—the central concern in the poem's examination of appeal in female "dress"—arguing that it is this rich rhetorical context that provides the energeia of Herrick's poem.

Abstract: In this paper, I offer a comprehensive interpretation of Pliny the Younger's discussion of amicitia in chapters 85–87 of his Panegyricus to Trajan. In these paragraphs, Pliny sets out his views on imperial friendship, illustrates them with an example of Trajan's behaviour, and places amicitia in broader political context. By analysing Pliny's conception of friendship against the wider backdrop of the Roman literary-philosophical tradition on amicitia , I show that this passage should not merely be considered a digression. Rather, Pliny's treatment of amicitia is an integral part of his rhetorical strategy because it, like the rest of the speech, emphatically pits Trajan against Domitian and demonstrates the former's virtuous nature.

Abstract: L’articolo indaga il ricorso di Demostene a enargeia come strumento di critica alla politica di Filippo II, con particolare riferimento al tema della distruzione di città. Nella prima parte, il contributo riassume le fonti e il dibattito su enargeia . Nella seconda vengono analizzati alcuni casi di studio. Nella parte conclusiva l’articolo cerca di definire nel complesso l’ enargeia di Demostene stabilendo un confronto con lo stile di Tucidide.

Abstract: It is the role of scholars to shine the light of tradition on problems of today so the value of the rhetorical tradition is clear to a larger audience of students, citizens, and non-experts, even as these same scholars undertake the difficult, demanding work of unearthing, reinterpreting, and understanding anew the buried wisdom of that tradition. This is a rallying cry to reclaim the history of rhetoric as a theory of persuasion about contingency: to comprehend anew how the essential unpredictability of human judgment and action are guided by the power of words.

Abstract: This article offers a new interpretation of the near absence of personal naming of opponents in speeches made in the classical Athenian Assembly, casting the phenomenon as a discursive strategy which allows the orator of the moment to recommend his own superior qualities and reject his opponents not as individuals but as an undifferentiated (and uniformly wrong) mass. The article then examines Demosthenes’s use (and the sincerity of his commitment to his use) of this strategy to pursue this pair of persuasive aims across his Assembly career, and as part of the rhetorical toolkit with which he manages his transition from “outsider” status in the late 350s and early 340s BCE to a position of steadily growing political influence from 346 BCE onwards.

Abstract: Speeches are ubiquitous in ancient Greek literature, and Plato’s works are no exception. In this article, I focus on the Crito , analyzing what is plausibly the least studied part of this dialogue, namely the first three Stephanus pages. The Crito contains five speeches; three by Crito, one by Socrates, and finally one delivered by the Laws. While the last two speeches have attracted considerable scholarly attention, Crito’s have been largely overlooked, considered in most cases as mere background to the dialogue. I will argue that these speeches in fact represent one of the fulcrums around which the entire dialogue pivots.

Abstract: In the early seventeenth century, rhetoric was understood as the art of lying. As poetry was a branch of rhetoric, this perception of untruthfulness made the question of religious poetry controversial. George Herbert confronts the question of religious poetry's moral status as rhetoric, treating the problem of sincerity versus artful language not as an irreconcilable opposition but as a creative tension. Herbert transforms cultural ambivalence about rhetoric into a sophisticated poetics by creating a sincerity effect in his poetry, thereby legitimizing religious verse. In short, Herbert achieves a sincerity effect in his rhetoric by acknowledging rhetoric's limited ability for sincerity.

Abstract: I argue that lists of Sumerian proverbs (mostly ca. 1800 BCE) were not anthologized either as collections of wise sayings nor as curricular tools, but as handbooks used for competitive praise-and-blame debates in intermediate scribal education. Positing a fundamentally dialogic purpose for the collections points us towards rhetorical performance as a goal of Mesopotamian education. A model of the game illustrates how the collections had the capacity to support a wide variety of rhetorical maneuvers. Both comparative and culture-specific evidence demonstrate how the "mixed" material of Sumerian proverbs and the rules it taught were appropriate for the instruction of young Babylonians in the politics of formal speech.

Abstract: Like other ancient and medieval writings, Bonaventure's Soliloquium ( c . 1259) aims not only to instruct, but also to move, exercise, and reform its readers. In fact, it is partly designed as a therapy for moral incontinence. Among its many elements, the therapy predominantly comprises several descriptions of death, judgment, and hell. Yet Bonaventure nowhere elaborates on the disease he is trying to cure nor why or how certain eschatological descriptions are supposed to work against it. Without such understanding, however, readers ignore how to engage with the writing, which makes its projected therapy inconsequential. The question then becomes: How are those descriptions formed to fulfill their role and how should the audience approach them? The present investigation attempts to answer this problem. The hypothesis is that rhetoric, especially its teachings on evidentia , plays a central part in the crafting of the eschatological descriptions and in their ability to function as therapeutic devices. Moreover, in researching this hypothesis, the investigation deals with three broader points. First, it shows the importance of images in Christianity insofar as they lead the attention from the invisible to the visible, instead of the other way around. Second, it argues that rhetoric is fundamental to Bonaventure's overall thinking. And third, it counters the widespread conception of religious fear as synonymous with dread and anxiety. It explains that Bonaventure had a more complex view of fear, which allowed him to help readers navigate through painful eschatological worries slowly toward positive, selfless, and loving fear of God.

Abstract: This article offers an overview of the reception of Aristotle's Rhetoric and its audiences in and since its own time until the present day. It defines the three types of audience under consideration: Who was listening to or reading the treatise? What implied audiences did their versions of it envisage and construct responsively (or not) to Aristotle's implied audiences, internal and external? And who were the people in the audiences who did ultimately hear the speeches of those who had consulted Aristotle? It then summarises the major stages in the reception of the treatise from later antiquity through the Byzantine, Arabic and western Middle Ages, to its first Latin translations and printed editions in the Renaissance. Aristotle's Rhetoric is currently enjoying an efflorescence both in and beyond the Academy, especially in education, despite some challenges from postcolonial legal thinkers to its continuing relevance.

Abstract: Aristotle's use of endoxa (generally accepted opinions) in his account of emotions, Rhetoric 2.1–11, 1378a-1388b, is analysed from the perspective of authorial style and the audience. When Aristotle says (1.1.12, 1355a), that speeches for the "multitude" ( polloi ) should rely on generally accepted opinions, he reveals the significance of endoxa in illuminating the perspectives of the non-elite. The use of endoxa imports the language of "everybody," which has implications for how the work operates and its relationship to a democratic audience. The integration of familiar phrasing and vocabulary enhances its cogency for a heterogeneous audience. The explicit framing of shared views, signposted by collective language, sits alongside implicit engagement with both views and vocabulary that would be familiar to the audience from tragedy. Endoxa shed light on Aristotle's status as a writer, the cultural situatedness of his ideas, and the appeal of Rhetoric to a wider public.

Abstract: This article analyses the way Aristotle constructs the category of "everybody" in relation with himself and his treatise's audience. In the Aristotelian corpus, the noun anthrōpoi ("humans") is chosen when men as a species are contrasted with gods or animals, while the substantivized adjective pantes ("all"), as a universal quantifier, is used in contrast with smaller social subdivisions (e.g., "the majority," "the wise," etc.) and refers to "all men" in a distributive, rather than a collective, sense. Moreover, pantes may often be the subject of a first-person plural verb, thus explicitly including the observers—Aristotle and his readers/listeners—into the object of the observation. "Gnomic" anthrōpoi presents observations about humans as established truths from an external perspective whereas the "social" and hic et nunc character of pantes is at home both in demonstrative arguments and in the discussion of rhetorical tasks in the context of the Athenian democracy.

Abstract: This article investigates the conditions under which someone can be deemed an effective spectator of a poetic or oratorical performance, first considering Aristotle's distinctive theory of mimesis from Poetics . The question of whether Aristotle believes that spectatorship has a positive effect on the soul (not expressly dealt with in Poetics ) is illuminated by Aristotle's argument in Rhetoric that effective rhetorical performances produce psychic correspondences between speaker and audience member, something like "sympathies," crucial to Aristotle's theory of successful political persuasion and action. Aristotle coins a new term sunomoiopathein to explain how these sympathies obtain. The audience member in a rhetorical speech literally identifies with the character of the orator—an activity parallelled by the spectator's mimesis of the theatrical actor's actions. Hence, the dramatic and rhetorical stages become, for Aristotle, universal centres for learning about human character and its consequences for ethical and political action.

Abstract: Thomas Hobbes' 1637 adaptation of Aristotle's Rhetoric, A Briefe of the Art of Rhetorique , was the first English-language version of the ancient Greek treatise. It de-democratised it, rendering it useful to a leader who, in Hobbes' ideal polity, would have no need to contend with articulate subordinates. But it was hugely influential, being republished in various editions for practical use, rather than antiquarian interest, right through to the 20th century. This article sets the Briefe both in the political context in which it appeared, and against the background of Hobbes' earlier rhetoric-focused translation of Thucydides, motivated by his despair at the current political scene in the early 17th century. The intensity of Hobbes' engagement with Thucydides' accounts of Athenian orators illuminates his decision to study Aristotle's Rhetoric , the earliest extant handbook on persuasive speech and one produced in the context of the Athenian democracy so vividly portrayed in Thucydides.

Abstract: Teaching of Aristotle's Rhetoric at secondary level in Britain has, until recently, been largely confined to elite fee-paying schools, attended by only seven per cent of young people. But since 2020, several projects have challenged the status quo by creating freely accessible resources based on Aristotle's Rhetoric for all schools to use. This article provides an overview of the recent educational audiences for Aristotle's Rhetoric , including an experimental modern Aristotelian "triad" of ethos, pathos, and logos in a deprived school in Surrey, grassroots initiatives inspired by a 2022 Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) Research Review for English, the activities of the Network for Oratory and Politics , debating competitions, and the introduction of the teaching of Aristotelian rhetoric in prisons. The article concludes by pointing to future possibilities for further widening of access to this text in British classrooms.

Résumé: Trente ans après sa parution, le livre de Laurent Pernot sur La rhétorique de l’éloge dans le monde gréco-romain reste un ouvrage pionnier dans le domaine de l’histoire de la rhétorique. L’article présente l’impact vivifiant et durable qu’a eu cet ouvrage sur le développement de trois champs de recherche en particulier : (1) le genre épidictique du discours, longtemps resté dans l’ombre des genres délibératif et judiciaire, (2) la rhétorique des époques impériale et tardo-antique, devenue maintenant un champ de recherche florissant, et (3) la rhétorique scolaire et l’enseignement de la rhétorique ainsi que les genres mineurs de la salle de classe (progymnasmata et déclamations), de l’époque de la Seconde Sophistique jusqu’à nos jours. On montrera dans quelle mesure l’ouvrage de Pernot a fait date et a inspiré de nouveaux chemins de recherche dans ces domaines.

Abstract: Si, à la fin du xxe siècle, le genre dit “épidictique” était peu considéré par les chercheurs, l’enquête menée dans La rhétorique de l’éloge a fait apparaître l’importance historique de cette forme rhétorique, la richesse de sa technique et la complexité de ses enjeux sociaux, qui visaient à la formation d’un consensus. Sur cette base, des pistes de travail restent ouvertes pour l’avenir: elles portent sur l’envers du consensus (les sous-entendus éventuellement critiques), sur la périodisation de l’histoire de l’éloge (en prenant en compte, notamment, l’époque hellénistique, l’Antiquité tardive et la Troisième sophistique) et sur des enquêtes philologiques restant à mener dans le domaine de l’édition de textes et à propos de l’atticisme et des rythmes de la prose.

Abstract: The article focuses on blame, the less fortunate pole of the pair on which the epideictic genre has traditionally been built. Picking up on Pernot’s idea that, despite its apparent symmetry, the relationship between praise and blame is in fact strongly unbalanced in favor of praise, a reflection is proposed on the role that the aggressive word, if relocated within the horizon of the epideictic genre, can still play in the public sphere.

Abstract: The preface provides a brief introduction to the five contributions collected in the issue and related to Laurent Pernot’s book La rhétorique de l’éloge dans le monde gréco-romain thirty years after its publication. The preface also highlights the main breakthroughs that Pernot’s book has made, constituting a methodological model for any research on ancient rhetoric. The book’s comprehensiveness and modernity in its approach to authors, works, genres, contexts and ideas is also emphasized.

Abstract: In the Rhétorique de l’éloge L. Pernot elucidates the purposes of ekphrasis in speeches of praise, identifying them in the evocation of pleasant sensations or strong emotions (pity or indignation). In both circumstances the contribution of vividness (ἐνάρ-γεια) is important. This paper draws inspiration from the words of L. Pernot to link ἔκφρασις and διατύπωσις, often wrongly considered synonymous, to different purposes of description and to explain the word-image relationship in the rhetoric of social media.

Abstract: This paper starts from the relationship between the Universities of Strasbourg and Naples, based on the friendship between Laurent Pernot and the author of the paper, both members of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric. In this field of research, Pernot’s La rhétorique de l’éloge is a precious and seminal work. The rhetorical praise often involves the audience as object of the praise itself, with remarkable differences in the political experience.

Abstract: Este trabajo desarrolla un aspecto que, a pesar de haber sido mencionado por los estudiosos y los tratadistas de la memoria, no se había estudiado en profundidad: la naturaleza inductiva de los procesos de reminiscencia tal como se describen en los tratados de artes de memoria en los siglos XV y XVI. La memoria retórica se aborda desde antiguo como un silogismo, por ello era necesario señalar las líneas generales que permiten guiar los silogismos mentales. Así pues, analizamos aquí los elementos de enlace y los modos en que las imágenes se conectan entre sí y con los lugares en las artes de memoria tardomedievales, probando que se basan en la inducción.

Abstract: This article provides a systematic analysis from an emic (culture-specific) perspective of the role of implicitness in classical Chinese rhetoric. Although implicitness is among the defining characteristics of East Asian rhetorical traditions and contributes to misunderstanding of ancient Chinese texts, there has been limited discussion of the role played by implicitness in classical Chinese rhetoric and argumentation. This article explicates the nature of implicitness rooted in the high context Chinese language, literary, and philosophy traditions, and explores the function of implicitness as a strategic means of persuasion in influential texts in the Chinese rhetorical tradition. The essay contributes to a multicultural knowledge of Chinese classical rhetoric beyond the Eurocentric traditions for understanding rhetoric, language, and communication in non-European cultures.

Abstract: This paper relates the modern invective “topoi,” important in research on Cicero’s speeches, to ancient rhetorical theory as present in Cicero’s De inventione . A particular proximity is evident in the doctrine of indignatio , which lists loci communes in which “topoi” such as the tyrant or the sacrilegious are implicitly recognizable. I shall examine the relationship between the rules on loci communes and the “topos” of the sacrilegious in this paper, using Cicero’s speeches against Verres as an example: Impiety, a frequently ignored object of Cicero’s invectives, is thus brought into connection with his theoretical utterances. In doing so, I shall briefly discuss Verres’s depiction as a sacrilegious person in general and its references to other speeches of Cicero. Mainly, however, I focus on the use of the motif in the indignationes of the actio secunda in Verrem . Here, Cicero’s productive use of the teachings of Greek theory becomes apparent.

Abstract: This paper is a rhetorical analysis of Plunkitt of Tammany Hall , a book of “plain talks” by George Washington Plunkitt. Plunkitt was a prominent politician in the Tammany machine. These talks expose the inner workings of how politicians become wealthy, how Tammany operated, and how to build a political machine. He rails against his enemies—those in the civil service, the Albany government, and the Republicans, to name a few. Ultimately, Plunkitt’s rhetoric is persuasive due to his use of Irish ethnic and Catholic religious identification, his appeals to the material efficacy of patronage politics, and his populist rhetorical style.

Abstract: El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo analizar algunos pasajes que hacen a la memoria discursiva de Cleón, el hijo de Cleeneto, y de su demagogía . Mi hipótesis es que, a medida que se va conformando la memoria discursiva de la demagogía y por asociación a la de la oratoria de Cleón, esta incluye una dimensión pathética que podríamos llamar “memoria emocional.” En el caso del campo léxico de la demagogía , esta “memoria emocional” operaría en la memoria discursiva como un “refuerzo” de la connotación negativa con la que el campo léxico se va tiñendo y que llegará, eventualmente, hasta nuestros días.

Abstract: The Hebrew Bible accords great moral agency to the collective “children of Israel.” Its discourse focuses as much on the attitudes, words and actions of the nation as on those of kings, priests, or prophets, let alone ordinary individuals. Yet key texts emphasize that God’s covenant is forged with individuals. The relative priorities of individuals vs. the nation are nowhere stated explicitly. However, a remarkable text, King Solomon’s dedicatory address for the Jerusalem Temple in 1 Kgs 8, suggests that they have equal claim on God’s attention. Solomon authorizes seven types of petitions, half for individuals and half for the nation. The importance of individuals’ petitions is heightened through four distinctive rhetorical strategies—sequence, amplitude, narrative time, and billing. Implications are sketched for understanding the Hebrew Bible’s conception of identity, agency, and moral character.