Drei Humanisten des Renaissancezeitalters über Wert und Unwert der Rhetorik
It is well-known among historians that rhetoric was at the centre of the studia
humaniora in the Italian Renaissance and an important part of education in those
times. In this essay the author draws attention to three short tracts discussing
the merits of rhetoric from various points of view. Ognibene da Lonigo claims
in Oratio de laudibus eloquentiae (1485) that rhetoric is absolutely indispensable
in all fields of human life. In Filippo Beroaldo’s Declamatio philosophi, medici et
oratoris de excellentia disceptantium (1497), the orator gains the victory over his
rivals. Both these writers argue mainly by citing ‘authorities’. In his Dialogus de
eloquentia (set down before 1555), Marcantonio Maioragio tries to argue by rational
argument for the higher value of the studia humaniora over an exclusively
Christian education. None of the three authors achieves more than plausibility
for his claim. The echo of Cicero’s philosophical and rhetorical works is clearly
perceptible in all of them.
Article language: German