November 9, 2011 (WEDNESDAY)
Columbia University
Butler Library, Room 523, 6:00PM

Peter Mack
Director, Warburg Institute (London)

Print and Innovation in Sixteenth Century Rhetoric: Agricola, Erasmus and Melancthon

Rhetoric was one of the most important subjects in renaissance schools and universities and also the subject of very large numbers of editions, both of classical and of modern textbooks. This lecture will describe the publishing phenomenon of renaissance rhetoric and discuss the relationship between intellectual innovation in this field and publishing success.

Prof. Mack has published widely on the history of logic and rhetoric in the renaissance and is currently working on a group of papers related to rhetoric and scholarship in England 1550-1650;  Montaigne in relation to the classical tradition and to his influence on English writers, sixteenth and seventeenth century philosopher-rhetoricians (Cavalcanti, Campanella, Bacon); and the ways in which rhetoricians and writers have thought about the audience.