Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300-1475 contributes to two fields, the history of the language arts and the history of literary theory. It brings together essential sources in the disciplines of grammar and rhetoric which were used to understand literary form and language and teach literary composition. Grammar and rhetoric, the language disciplines, formed the basis of any education from antiquity through the Middle Ages, no matter what future career a student would want to pursue. Because literature was also the subject matter of grammatical teaching, and because rhetorical teaching gave great attention to literary form, these were also the disciplines that would prepare students for an understanding of literary language and form. These arts constituted the abiding theoretical toolbox for anyone engaged in a life of letters.

• List of Abbreviations


• General Introduction


• Part 1 Arts of Language, AD ca. 300-ca. 950


• Introduction


• Terentianus Maurus, De litteris and De syllabis, ca. 300


• Aelius Donatus, Ars minor, Ars maior, Life of Virgil, ca. 300


• Marius Victorinus, Commentary on the De inventione, before 355


• Servius, Commentary on the Aeneid, ca. 400-420


• Tiberius Claudius Donatus, Interpretationes Vergilianae, ca. 400


• Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, ca. 420-490


• Priscian, Institutiones grammaticae and Institutio De Nomine Pronomine Verbo, ca. 520


• Boethius, De topicis differentiis book 4, ca. 523


• Cassiodorus, Expositio Psalmorum, ca. 540, and Institutiones, ca. 562


• Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, ca. 625


• Virgilius Maro Grammaticus, Epistolae and Epitomae, ca. 650


• Bede, De arte metrica and De schematibus et tropis, ca. 710


• Alcuin, Ars grammatica and Disputatio de rhetorica et de virtutibus, ca. 790-800


• Glosses on Priscian by Remigius and his Followers (ninth and tenth centuries)


• Part 2 Dossiers on the Ablative Absolute and Etymology


• Introduction


• The Ablative Absolute Dossier


• Etymology Dossier


• Part 3 Sciences and Curricula of Language in the Twelfth Century


• Introduction


• Commentaries on Priscian, ca. 1080 to ca. 1150: Glosulae, Notae dunelmenses, William of Conches


• Rupert of Deutz, De sancta trinitate et operibuseius, 1112-16: Grammar and Rhetoric


• Thierry of Chartres, Commentaries on the De inventione and Ad Herennium, ca. 1130-1140


• Thierry of Chartres, Prologue to the Heptateuchon;Prologues to Donatus, ca. 1140.


• Petrus Helias, Summa super Priscianum, ca.1140-50


• Dominicus Gundissalinus, De divisione philosophiae, ca. 1150-60


• John of Salisbury, Metalogicon,1159


• Grammatical Commentaries from "School, " of Ralph of Beauvais ca. 1165-75Alan of Lille, Anticlaudianus, ca. 1182


• Alexander Neckam, A List of Textbooks (from Sacerdos ad altare), ca. 1210


• Section 4 Pedagogies of Grammar and Rhetoric, ca. 1150-1280


• Introduction


• Prologues to Twelfth-Century School Commentaries on Horace's Ars poetica, ca. 1150


• Matthew of Vendôme, Ars versificatoria, ca. 1175


• Alexander of Villa Dei, Doctrinale, 1199


• Eberhard of Béthune, Graecismus, 1212


• Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Poetria nova, ca. 1208-1213


• Gervase of Melkley, Ars versificaria, ca. 1215-1216


• Thomas of Chobham, Summa de arte praedicandi, ca.1220


• John of Garland, Parisiana poetria, ca. 1231-1235Hugh of Trimberg, Registrum multorum auctorum,1280


• Tria Sunt (after 1256, before 1400) Part 5 Professional, Civic, and Scholastic Approaches to the Language Arts, ca.1225- ca.1272


• IntroductionGuido Faba, Preface to the Rota nova, ca. 1225


• Henri d'Andeli, Bataille des sept arts, ca. 1230


• Commentary on the Barbarismus (attributed to Robert Kilwardby), ca. 1250


• Hermannus Alemannus, Al-Farabi's Didascalia on Aristotle's Rhetoric,1256


• Brunetto Latini, Rettorica, ca. 1260Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum doctrinale, ca. 1260


• Thomas Aquinas, Preface to his Expositio of Aristotle's Posterior Analytics,1270


• Giles of Rome, commentary on Aristotle's Rhetoric,ca. 1272


• Part 6 Receptions of the Traditions: The Language Arts and Poetics in the Later Middle Ages, ca. 1369-ca. 1475


• Introduction


• Nicolaus Dybinus, Declaracio oracionis de beata Dorothea ca. 1369


• John Gower, Confessio amantis, 1386-90General Prologue of the Wycliffite Bible, ca. 1395-9


• John Lydgate, Fall of Princes, 1431-9


• A Middle English Treatise on the Seven Liberal Arts, ca. 1475


• Select Bibliographies


• Primary Sources


• Secondary Sources


• Index of Latin termsIndex of ancient and medieval names


• General Index

Rita Copeland is Professor of Classical Studies and English, and Chair of Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. Her field is medieval studies, and she has written extensively on the histories of rhetoric, literary theory, translation, allegory, pedagogy, and intellectuals.
Ineke Sluiter is Professor of Greek at Leiden University. Her field is ancient and medieval ideas on language and their socio-cultural contexts. She has published extensively on ancient grammar, rhetoric, philosophy of language, pedagogy and theories of interpretation.