This article proposes that we add to the small number of Renaissance works on the art of creating or using facetiae an almost unknown De arte iocandi by an almost unknown Mattheus Delius, who died young. The work is a poem in four books, in Ovidian elegiac couplets, obviously inspired by the De arte bibendi of Vincentius Obsopoeus; both works have been assumed to be paradoxical encomia but are in fact serious albeit playful compendia of rules. Delius is interested not in the rhetorical use of jokes as weapons, but in something very close to Erasmus’s festivitas. The preface by Melanchthon almost qualifies as an independent art of joking, and together they add valuable information to our knowledge of Reformation wit.

The contribution of Cicero’s discussion of facetiae in the De oratore to Renaissance rhetoric and literature has been consistently undervalued.

Research Article| May 01 1985 The Ideology and Language of Translation in Renaissance France and Their Humanist Antecedents The Ideology and Language of Translation in Renaissance France and Their Humanist Antecedents by Glyn P. Norton. Geneva: Droz, 1984 (Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, no. 201). 361 p p. Barbara C. Bowen Barbara C. Bowen Department of French, University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) 61801 USA. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Rhetorica (1985) 3 (2): 150–153. https://doi.org/10.1525/rh.1985.3.2.150 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Barbara C. Bowen; The Ideology and Language of Translation in Renaissance France and Their Humanist Antecedents. Rhetorica 1 May 1985; 3 (2): 150–153. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/rh.1985.3.2.150 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentRhetorica Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1985, The International Society for the History of Rhetoric1985 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.