Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300–1475 (review)

The classical definition of grammatica was ‘the art of interpreting the poets and other writers and the principles for speaking and writing correctly’. Its purpose was to allow students to speak and write with great eloquence, but grammatica was only the beginning of literacy. Any study of Latin learning and its effects on other cultures and linguistic communities must also include a treatment of rhetoric. Ancient rhetoric supplied a vast range of formal rules, strategies, and techniques for oral argument that were initially designed for the courtroom but eventually permeated into all manner of public discourse. By the antique period it was already being translated into a practice for litteratura (written discourse). The tradition of the grammaticus remained relatively unchanged from the antique period until c. 1100, but a change ensued in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that saw ancient methods truncated to concise, easily manageable units of pedagogy and versified for easier memorization.

In this volume, editors Rita Copeland and Ineke Sluiter have supplied selections from over fifty medieval treatises and commentaries on rhetoric and grammar in English translation, many of which have never been translated before. After a clearly written and coherent General Introduction, the editors structure the volume by first dividing it into six sections reflecting the applications, developments, and sub-traditions of these language arts, particularly post-1100, and then by ordering the texts chronologically. Each section has its own Introduction outlining the historical context of the texts, and the similarities and differences between them. Each text is also presented with further introductory headnotes and details of either the original Latin edition that has been translated or the translation they are reprinting. Although the volume considers developmental and sub-traditional aspects in the history of grammar, certain specializations are not traced, particularly the ars dictaminis (letter writing) and the ars praedicandi (preaching), the incorporation of grammar into philosophical discourse which sought to develop the belief that language mirrored the reality of the physical world (referred to as speculative (or ‘mirror’) grammar), and the development of dialectic which was classified with grammar and rhetoric as part of the trivium.

Part I, ‘Arts of language, 300–950’, begins with excerpts from the oldest extant verse grammar, that of Terentianus Maurus’s De Litteris and De Syllabis. Unfortunately, and somewhat unhelpfully, the early monuments of grammar and rhetoric – Aelius Donatus, Victorinus, Martianus Capella, Priscian, and Boethius – are then rather hastily covered. The arrangement of material in this section requires readers new to the field of ancient and medieval grammatical and rhetorical studies to connect far too many theoretical and technical dots. On occasion, the reader must juggle numerous pages and texts at once in order to capture a clear understanding of a matter, doctrine, or practice. The Introduction to the part offers a neat historical summary, but is certainly not substantial enough to cover this issue. Part II, ‘Dossiers on the ablative absolute and etymology’, is a different matter as it charts the developments of both from the third to the fourteenth centuries. The introductions to each are crisp and informative, and the excerpts are well linked to produce a more coherent teaching; one wonders why single subject units were not also used to organize Part I.

That said, the editors appear to be on surer footing as the book progresses and the periods become more constricted. Part III, ‘Sciences and curricula of language in the twelfth century’, presents ten samples beginning with commentaries on Priscian’s Institutiones. It includes excerpts from William of Conches’s major work, Philosophia Mundi, and his tract on grammar appended to this work, generous samples from Rupert of Deutz, Thierry of Chartres, and Dominicus Gundissalinus, and ends with Alexander Neckam’s list of textbooks for students of the liberal arts found in his Sacerdos ad Altare (c. 1210). Because of the narrowing of the period, the excerpts form...