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

Giambattista Vico (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1996 | ISBN-10: 9051839154 | ISBN-13: 978-9051839159

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

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Editions Rodopi (January 1996)
• ISBN-10: 9051839154
• ISBN-13: 978-9051839159
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,834,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Vico's lectures on rhetoric are a key to his NEW SCIENCE, January 31, 1998

By A Customer

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

Vico spent time to review his lectures for the students in Naples and kept their manuscripts always on his work table, consulting them, correcting them, adding new thoughts and examples from the classics. He started teaching rhetoric in 1699 and we have two surviving documents of 1711 and 1741 from which this first English translation has been derived. With regard to techniques the rhetoric here explained has one purpose: that of giving to law students the means to introduce, explain, prove, and defend a cause in court, in one word, to persuade. With regard to philosophy this book speaks of the nature of education, of language, of the first original form of language, and of the truth that essentially man is just speech.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Vico's lectures on rhetoric are a key to his NEW SCIENCE, January 31, 1998

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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 Giuliano ... and Arthur W. Shippee (Value Inquiry Book) (Hardcover)

Vico spent time to review his lectures for the students in Naples and kept their manuscripts always on his work table, consulting them, correcting them, adding new thoughts and examples from the classics. He started teaching rhetoric in 1699 and we have two surviving documents of 1711 and 1741 from which this first English translation has been derived. With regard to techniques the rhetoric here explained has one purpose: that of giving to law students the means to introduce, explain, prove, and defend a cause in court, in one word, to persuade. With regard to philosophy this book speaks of the nature of education, of language, of the first original form of language, and of the truth that essentially man is just speech.