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

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.

Table of Contents:
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 Vendôme, Ars versificatoria, ca. 1175 Alexander of Villa Dei, Doctrinale, 1199 Eberhard of Béthune, 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

About the Author :
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.

Review :
Monumental ... In their heroic labour of translation and scholarship, Copeland and Sluiter provide an entrée to the millennium of pedagogy that formed countless priests, monks, bishops, intellectuals, courtiers and secular bureaucrats.