Essays on Medieval Rhetoric

This collection covers topics in medieval rhetoric from its origins in late antiquity to the end of the Middle Ages. Individual essays are devoted to works by major figures such as Saint Augustine, Peter of Blois and Geoffrey of Vinsauf; to teaching programmes at academic centres such as Oxford and Bologna; and to such topics as the relationship between the art of letter writing and the art of poetry, the oral dimension of medieval epistolography, the manuscript traditions of influential textbooks, medieval genre terminology, and the position of medieval rhetoric within a disciplinary history rooted in classical rhetoric.