Page:Arte or Crafte of Rhethoryke - 1899.djvu/32

 30 THE ARTE OR CRAFTE OF RHETHORYKE

from which he borrows several passages. 1 In 1521, however, a

shorter and much simplified version, adapted to Melanchthon

school use, was compiled, perhaps from the notes of

Melanchthon 's lectures, 2 and published with the title Institutions Rhetoricce Philip. Mel. 3 From the first book of this work, treating of Invention, Cox draws the greater part of his treatise, and this book accordingly is herewith reprinted for convenience of compari- son. I reserve for the Notes the discussion of the exact relation between the two works. 4 A cursory comparison of the two texts will show the closeness of Cox's dependence on his original. At the same time numerous passages in Cox seem to be of independent composition. Particularly interesting among these are many of the illustrations drawn from Renaissance and Mediaeval history and lit-

x See the Notes infra pp. 105, 106, 108-9, in, 112, concerning this work.

2 Melanchthon himself, in an epistle to Joannes Agricola concerning this work, writes: "Qualescunque sunt hae praeceptiunculae Rhetoricae, quas dictavimus non scripsimus, opto ut lectori prosint. . . . Porro magna ex parte res Rhetorica purius emendatiusque tractata est, quam in prioribus meis libellis." Bretschneider's note on this is: "Intelligitur itaque, haec quae hie edita sunt, dictata esse a Melanthone in schola, et ab amicis, probante Melanthone, edita."

3 At Hagenau; reprinted Cologne 1521; Paris 1523; Strassburg, 1524.

4 Other rhetorical works by Melanchthon, which do not concern us here, were the " Phil. Mel. Elementorum rhetorices libri II" Wittenberg 1531, a recast of the earlier works (also 1532, 1534, 1536, 1542, etc.), finally re-edited 1542 (reprinted many times), and his Encomium Eloquently or " Necessarias esse ad omne studio- rum genus artes dicendi Philip. Melanchthonis declamatio," Wittenberg n. d., not a treatise but a brief general essay on the subject of the title (compare Gabriel Harvey's Rhetor). One passage from this latter work, which illustrates both the abuses of the time and the aims of the reformers and humanists, is worth quoting :

" Discipline omnes dicendi genere sic obscuratas sunt, ut ne doctores quidem ipsi, quid profiterentur satis compertum haberent. Digladiabantur inter se de figuris sermonis philosophi, tanquam in tenebris Andabatae, nee quisquam a domesticis suis plane intelligebatur."

On M's rhetorical writings and their importance see further A. Planck, Melanchthon Preceptor Germanics, eine Denkschrift (Nordlingen 1860) ; Paulsen, Gesch. des gelehrten Unterrichts aufden Deutschen Schulen und Universitaten (Leip- zig 1885), especially p. 149: " Melanchthon's Kompendien .... der Rhetorik und Dialektik .... [etc.], dienten bis ins 18. Jahrhunderts hinein dem gelehrten Unter- richt auf den deutschen Universitaten und Schulen als Grundlage." According to Hallam (Lit. Europe] Melanchthon was, "far above all others, the founder of gen- eral learning in Germany."

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