Preface:
I. Cicero's influence was so dominate in the field of rhetoric that he is usually portrayed as the "Sole Arbiter” during this time.
A. His works earned him the title “Master of Eloquence”
B. Writers of the time used the Latin term “rhetorica” (meaning the rhetoric”) to indicate Cicero’s De inventione.
C. So what happened to Aristotle’s work entitled The Rhetoric? It’s fate in the late classical/early medieval period is obscure.
1. Aristotle wrote in Greek whereas Cicero wrote in Latin so his work needed translation. During the late classical and early medieval period it seemed to be readily available in Latin translation and to have wide use. But the author mentioned that encyclopedists like Isodorus and Cassiodorus ignored his theories and noted compend-writers seemed to be unaware of the book’s existence.
2. Even one of Aristotle’s serious students, Boethius, a great Roman philosopher who understood Greek well, assumed Cicero’s rhetoric should be considered the standard.
II. It was not until 1240 that the book was reintroduced back to the mainstream:
A. Hermannus Allemanus prepared a Latin translation from the work of Al-Farabi, a 9thC. scholar through which we get a transmission of Arab intellect on the subject.
B. Two translations from Greek into Latin:
1. The first ( old translation 1250A.D.) survives in only
3 manuscripts.Very obscure - never used in schools either
because it was badly done and impossible to understand.
Or it may have been done in Sicily which may have
caused the work to suffer a geographic handicap.
2. The later version (1270A.D.) by William of Moerbeke, an associate of St. Thomas Acquinas, survives today in 96 manuscripts. It was composed at the height of Parisian interest in Aristotlelian writings. Acquinas’ sponsorship of this was powerful and helped make this version dominate.
III. The subject of rhetoric was not a requirement in European universities and The Rhetoric was not regularly used until the latter part of the Middle Ages.
1. At Paris there is no mention of any rhetorical works as required reading up to the 15thC. Lectures on the subject were only “cursory” or given outside the regular schedule.
2. German universities modeled the Parisian Curriculum.
3. At Oxford there is failure to give evidence of The Rhetoric’s use unti1 1431 when it was only used as alternate reading.
4. Cambridge again there is no use of the book listed.
5. Italians not surprisingly ignored it altogether since Cicero was their master of writing and speaking as he was for most of Europe.
IV. Fact remains Aristotle did not have a reputation as a writer on the theory of discourse and the book played a very insignificant role in medieval development of rhetoric. Yet it survives in almost 100 medieval manuscripts. If medieval scholars copied it so many times, they must have seen much in The Rhetoric to be admired.
A. The author believes after studying commentaries of Aegidius Romanus, a Parisian scholar and bishop, who lived toward the end of the 13thC., it is probable that Aristotle’s Rhetorica had become a valuable adjunct to studies of ethics and political science rather than being allied with dialectic or theory of discourse. In fact, the fame and importance of Aegidius would have helped any such tendencies along.
B. Of the 96 manuscripts that survive, the book appears 17 times alone with no other works bound together with it. In the other 79 instances there is a striking pattern of it being bound with other works containing ethics or politics or both. Never did it show up bound with dialectic works.
Conclusion: While Aristotle’s book did not serve its original purpose in the Middle Ages as a text on oral and written discourse, it did find a significant place in European culture in the areas of ethics, morals, and politics.
The work of Aristotle had proven itself to be adaptable to the needs of the day!