Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300 -1475

An anthology of over fifty primary texts representing the development of grammar, rhetoric, and literary study from the early to the late Middle Ages, many translated into English for the first time. Includes historical essays, headnotes, and detailed annotations, making this a valuable resource for specialists and non-specialists alike.

Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300-1475 contributes to two fields, the history of the language arts and the history of literary theory. It brings together essential sources in the disciplines of grammar and rhetoric which were used to understand literary form and language and teach literary composition. Grammar and rhetoric, the language disciplines, formed the basis of any education from antiquity through the Middle Ages, no matter what future career a student would want to pursue. Because literature was also the subject matter of grammatical teaching, and because rhetorical teaching gave great attention to literary form, these were also the disciplines that would prepare students for an understanding of literary language and form. These arts constituted the abiding theoretical toolbox for anyone engaged in a life of letters. The book brings together more than fifty primary texts from the medieval history of grammar and rhetoric, well over half of them never translated into English before. The volume establishes the ancient traditions on which the medieval arts are based, and gives substantial selections from the late antique source texts. All texts are presented in their historical and theoretical contexts, and carefully annotated in order to make them useful to readers, both specialists and non-specialists. For the first time, the long traditions of grammar and rhetoric are presented together in one historical survey, showing how they related to each other, and are placed in a coherent conceptual structure, their contributions to literary theory.

List of Abbreviations; General Introduction; Part 1 Arts of Language, AD ca. 300-ca. 950; Introduction; Terentianus Maurus, De litteris and De syllabis, ca. 300; Aelius Donatus, Ars minor, Ars maior, Life of Virgil, ca. 300; Marius Victorinus, Commentary on the De inventione, before 355; Servius, Commentary on the Aeneid, ca. 400-420; Tiberius Claudius Donatus, Interpretationes Vergilianae, ca. 400; Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, ca. 420-490; Priscian, Institutiones grammaticae and Institutio De Nomine Pronomine Verbo, ca. 520; Boethius, De topicis differentiis book 4, ca. 523; Cassiodorus, Expositio Psalmorum, ca. 540, and Institutiones, ca. 562; Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, ca. 625; Virgilius Maro Grammaticus, Epistolae and Epitomae, ca. 650; Bede, De arte metrica and De schematibus et tropis, ca. 710; Alcuin, Ars grammatica and Disputatio de rhetorica et de virtutibus, ca. 790-800; Glosses on Priscian by Remigius and his Followers (ninth and tenth centuries); Part 2 Dossiers on the Ablative Absolute and Etymology; Introduction; The Ablative Absolute Dossier; Etymology Dossier; Part 3 Sciences and Curricula of Language in the Twelfth Century; Introduction; Commentaries on Priscian, ca. 1080 to ca. 1150: Glosulae, Notae dunelmenses, William of Conches; Rupert of Deutz, De sancta trinitate et operibuseius, 1112-16: Grammar and Rhetoric; Thierry of Chartres, Commentaries on the De inventione and Ad Herennium, ca. 1130-1140; Thierry of Chartres, Prologue to the Heptateuchon;Prologues to Donatus, ca. 1140.; Petrus Helias, Summa super Priscianum, ca.1140-50; Dominicus Gundissalinus, De divisione philosophiae, ca. 1150-60; John of Salisbury, Metalogicon,1159; Grammatical Commentaries from <"School,>" of Ralph of Beauvais ca. 1165-75; Alexander Neckam, A List of Textbooks (from Sacerdos ad altare), ca. 1210; Section 4 Pedagogies of Grammar and Rhetoric, ca. 1150-1280; Introduction; Prologues to Twelfth-Century School Commentaries on Horace's Ars poetica, ca. 1150; Matthew of Vend?me, Ars versificatoria, ca. 1175; Alexander of Villa Dei, Doctrinale, 1199; Eberhard of B?thune, Graecismus, 1212; Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Poetria nova, ca. 1208-1213; Gervase of Melkley, Ars versificaria, ca. 1215-1216; Thomas of Chobham, Summa de arte praedicandi, ca.1220; John of Garland, Parisiana poetria, ca. 1231-1235; Tria Sunt (after 1256, before 1400) Part 5 Professional, Civic, and Scholastic Approaches to the Language Arts, ca.1225- ca.1272; Introduction; Henri d'Andeli, Bataille des sept arts, ca. 1230; Commentary on the Barbarismus (attributed to Robert Kilwardby), ca. 1250; Hermannus Alemannus, Al-Farabi's Didascalia on Aristotle's Rhetoric,1256; Brunetto Latini, Rettorica, ca. 1260; Thomas Aquinas, Preface to his Expositio of Aristotle's Posterior Analytics,1270; Giles of Rome, commentary on Aristotle's Rhetoric,ca. 1272; Part 6 Receptions of the Traditions: The Language Arts and Poetics in the Later Middle Ages, ca. 1369-ca. 1475; Introduction; Nicolaus Dybinus, Declaracio oracionis de beata Dorothea ca. 1369; John Gower, Confessio amantis, 1386-90; John Lydgate, Fall of Princes, 1431-9; A Middle English Treatise on the Seven Liberal Arts, ca. 1475; Select Bibliographies; Primary Sources; Secondary Sources; Index of Latin terms; General Index

Rita Copeland is Professor of Classical Studies and English, and Chair of Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Her field is medieval studies, and she has written extensively on the histories of rhetoric, literary theory, translation, allegory, pedagogy, and intellectuals. Ineke Sluiter is Professor of Greek at Leiden University. Her field is ancient and medieval ideas on language and their socio-cultural contexts. She has published extensively on ancient grammar, rhetoric, philosophy of language, pedagogy and theories of interpretation.