The Art of Rhetoric (Institutiones Oratoriae, 1711-1741): From the definitive Latin text and notes, Italian commentary and introduction by ... and Arthur W. Shippee (Value Inquiry Book) [Paperback]

Giambattista Vico (Author), Giorgio A. Pinton (Translator), Arthur W. Shippee (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 9051839286 | ISBN-13: 978-9051839289 | Publication Date: January 1996

Gustavo Costa reviewing the Italian edition of Vico's Institutiones Oratoriae in New Vico Studies 9 (1991), has written that Rhetoric is the mainspring of an important trend of Vichian studies which initiated at the beginning of the twentieth century and had its manifestation in John D. Schaeffer's Sensus Communis: Vico, Rhetoric, and the Limits of Relativism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1990), where Schaeffer aptly noted, summing up a long exegetic tradition, "Vico was imbued with rhetoric and convinced of its centrality to Western civilization." Unfortunately, the editions of Vico's works published in English have not yet included the Institutiones Oratoriae, which more or less reflects the lectures on rhetoric given by Vico at the University of Naples, starting with the academic year 1699-1700 and going through 1739-1741. The manual on rhetoric was used in Italy up to the end of the nineteenth century and established the common curriculum in rhetoric to be followed in all Universities. This English edition offers a text of the Institutiones complete on the base of the four known extant manuscripts. It offers the marginal glosses made by Vico's students, a collection of Vico's phrases and explanations of terms collected by some of the students, a glossary of Latin words and rhetorical terms from the Latin text, and a wealth of information in the commentary. The Art of Rhetoric is the manual for everyone who wants to know what rhetoric is, how it was employed in the forum or the courts, how it could be learned from the classic orators, and how it can be used whenever we speak for convincing, praising or motivating.

Product Details

• Paperback: 346 pages
• Publisher: Rodopi (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9051839286
• ISBN-13: 978-9051839289
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,666,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The mystery of rhetoric finally revealed, November 9, 1999

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Amatorish Author "gapinton" (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Rhetoric (Institutiones Oratoriae, 1711-1741): From the definitive Latin text and notes, Italian commentary and introduction by ... and Arthur W. Shippee (Value Inquiry Book) (Paperback)

This manual on rhetoric is an excellent introduction to the art of public and private speech. It revealed all the kinds of tropes that render our communication appealing, attractive, interesting, and fascinating. In addition, the manual explain the art of persuading and the techniques used by law professionals when in the conference room as well as in the forum, when defending a cause. The manual was indeed written for pre-law students in the eighteenth century, when the art of speaking in public and in the court was the only art of communication. Examples of the different tropes and techniques are taken from the authors of the classical world, from Cicero, for instance, Quintilian, and Demosthenes. Today in the universities the rhetoric of Ernesto Grassi goes for the most, but it is on this writing of Vico that Grassi relied in his theory of rhetoric!