Rhetorical Culture and Literary Practices in Italy (13th–17th Centuries)

Abstract

The introduction reconstructs the historical and theoretical framework within which the special issue Rhetorical Culture and Literary Practices in Italy (Thirteenth–Seventeenth Centuries) is situated, following the international conference of the same name, held at the Italian Cultural Institute in Amsterdam on 8–9 November 2024. At the centre of the inquiry lies the relationship between rhetoric and literature, examined through the variety of forms it assumes over time and across different contexts of written production. The historically shifting status of rhetoric, the continual redefinition of its domains, and its interaction with genres, practices, and institutions provide the background against which the contributions gathered in the volume are read. From the medieval ars dictaminis to vernacular epistolary writing, from sixteenth-century reflection on language and eloquence to theatricality and Baroque theories of metaphor, the issue focuses on selected moments in which rhetorical knowledge participates in the formation, interpretation, and transformation of literary forms.