The Edwin Smith Surgery Manual and the Ebers Manual are two of the oldest technical texts available for analysis; both illustrate the complex rhetorical dynamics characteristic of ancient Egypt. In both, the contents present or encourage substantive reformulation of medical practice and thinking within a strongly conservative, authoritarian culture. In both, we can see how ancient Egyptian rhetorical forms allowed for challenges to tradition, while simultaneously adhering to the value placed on tradition.

Though historical scholarship in technical writing has been sparse, what is available on Francis Bacon has tended to focus on Bacon's influence in directing scientific discourse toward the use of plain prose. This article shows that in many ways, Bacon's theory of rhetoric for specialized, knowledge-seeking fields directly conflicts with that of those who support plain prose for these fields. In addition, the rhetorical method Bacon utilized in presenting the theory has subverted the effect of much of his theory. Consequently, it is not surprising that Bacon's actual theory differs both from what was transferred to the Royal Society and from posterity's interpretation of it.

This article examines a little known, but superb piece of ancient technical writing, in fact the first technical writing in English on a complex scientific instrument: A Treatise on the Astrolabe by the medieval poet, Geoffrey Chaucer. As late as 1932, Chaucer's treatise was still touted by a science historian as unsurpassed among English writings on the astrolabe; yet it has received little attention within the technical writing field. To gain deeper understanding of the strengths and enduring powers of this piece of technical writing, so we can apply these insights to modern efforts, this article examines Chaucer's treatise and also looks briefly at Chaucer's source, an eighth-century work by an Arabian astronomer, Messahala. This examination of historical descriptions and instructions shows that many of our current conventions and forms in handling these modes of writing were both natural and traditional in Chaucer's time, and some even in Messahala's.