Latin Grammar and Rhetoric: From Classical Theory to Medieval Practice

No legacy from antiquity to the Latin Middle Ages was more pervasive, or more enduring, than that of grammar and rhetoric. Cicero's son would have felt at home in a Tudor schoolroom, and the classical curriculum is readily recognizable in that of the Tudor schoolroom. And yet, grammatical and rhetorical theory and practice did change during those 1500 years, in ways that continue to demand, and richly reward, investigation. The twelve essays in this book contribute to the rapidly growing body of knowledge about the teaching and uses of grammar and rhetoric in the Latin West from late antiquity to the dawn of a new era in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Since grammar and rhetoric dominated (indeed, almost monopolized) schooling from Cicero's Rome until the twelfth-century revival of Roman law and the rise of universities, clearly a collection of essay examining aspects of these two subjects will, by definition, enrich the larger history of education as well.

Contents:

1. Latin Orthopraxes, Paul F. Gehl, The Newberry Library, Chicago
2. Tales Out of School: Grammatical Culture in Fulgentius the Mythographer, Gregory Hays, University of Virginia
3. After the Schools: Grammar and Rhetoric in Cassiodorus, James W. Halporn, Indiana University and Harvard University
4. Grammar and Exegesis: Bede's Liber de schematibus et tropis, Carmela Vircillo Franklin, Columbia University
5. De schematibus et tropis in Italian Garb: A Study of Bamberg Msc. Class. 43, Luciana Cuppo Csaki, Dutchess Day School, New York
6. The Hermeneumata pseudodositheana, Latin Oral Fluency, and the Social Function of the Cambro-Latin Dialogues Called De raris fabulis, Scott Gwara, University of South Carolina
7. The Golden Line: Ancient and Medieval Lists of Special Hexameters and Modern Scholarship, Kenneth Mayer, Assumption College, Massachusetts
8. Medieval Teaching Texts on Syllable Quantities and the Innovations from the School of Alberic of Monte Cassino, Diane Warne Anderson, University of Minnesota
9. Narrative and an Absolutely Fabulous Commentary on Ovid's Heroides, Ralph Hexter, University of California, Berkeley
10. Late Antique Rhetoric, Early Monasticism, and the Revival of School Rhetoric, Mary Carruthers, New York University
11. Ancient Sophistic and Medieval Rhetoric, Rita Copeland, University of Pennsylvania
12. Weeping for Dido: Epilogue on a Premodern Rhetorical Exercise in the Postmodern Classroom, Marjorie Curry Woods, University of Texas at Austin