Plett, Heinrich F. Rhetoric and Renaissance Culture.

Berlin; New York: de Gruyter,

2004.
- Illustrative examples of how a humanist wrote and revised a rhetorical work are the
three treatises of the praeceptor Germaniae Philipp Melanchthon (i.e. Schwartzerdt
[1497-1560]), an ardent supporter and propagator of the Reformation (Figure 3). 17 His
rhetoric first appeared at Basel in 1519 under the title PHILIPPI / MELANCHTHONIS
DE / RHETORICA LIBRI TRES. It follows the classical (Ciceronian) schema of the
five duties (officia) of the orator: inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, and actio, of
which the latter two receive no full treatment; but it also includes, as innovative
additions, chapters on hermeneutics (De enarratorio genere, De commentandi
ratione) and sermons (De sacris concionibus). A characteristic feature that
pervades the whole of this rhetoric is the emphasis placed on dialectic the study of
which its author recommends to his students time and again. For this treatise was
composed as a textbook for the University of Tbingen, where Melanchthon taught as
one of the first professors of rhetoric. It is therefore no small wonder that a second
version of the same textbook bears the programmatic title Institutiones Rhetoricae
(1521). Smaller in size than its predecessor, indeed consisting only of a few leaves, it
is confined to precise terminological definitions of the rhetorical categories and short
illustrative examples that can easily be memorized. Its overall disposition is, with
minor alterations, patterned after De rhetorica, but, by contrast, the section on
elocutio is enlarged (from 11 per cent up to 56,5 per cent), thus illustrating the
importance humanists attached to style. The same practice is observed in the last
revision of the original work, the Elementa rhetorices of 1542, with the difference that
it is divided into two books, the first dealing with inventio and dispositio, the second
with elocutio alone. Here, as in his first version, Melanchthon emphasizes the
relevance of dialectic and now refers to his own work. The Elementa rhetorices were
immensely popular in their day, as is documented by the large number of editions, a
total of 33 by Melanchthons death in 1560.
Melanchthons influence is shown in such transformations of his Elementa as the
Praecepta rhetoricae imventionis (1556) by David Chytraeus (1530-1600), first a
student and later a professor and rector at the University of Rostock, Germany, who
reworked Melanchthons treatise as a textbook of precepts for courses of rhetoric
(Figure 4). Restricting its content to inventio, the first part of the ars, he proposed a
total of four classes of rhetorical genres (causae): didactic, demonstrative,
deliberative, and judicial, the first being Melanchthons addition to the classical triad:

 seu doctrinale [genus] monstrat rationem tractandi omnes res, de quibus alii
docendi sunt. Demonstrativum continet personarum, factorum et rerum descriptiones,
laudationes et vituperationes. Deliberativum rationem petendi, consolandi, adhortandi, suadendi
etc. indicat. Indiciale tractat controversias forenses.18

The popularity of Melanchthons rhetorical concept is also evident by its skeletonized

summary in the tabulae of Petrus Mosellanus (i.e. Peter Schade [1393-1424]), who
was one of the great epitomizers of the time. His In Philippi Melanchthonis
Rhetoricae Tabulae appeared shortly after the publication of the Institutiones
Rhetoricae and went through several editions. On the whole, the three versions of
Melanchthons rhetorical concept, together with their numerous editions, as well as
Mosellanus Tabulae, amply demonstrate the wide dissemination of Neo-Latin rhetoric
in Renaissance Europe, particularly when it was associated with a general practical
purpose, in this case with Protestant education at grammar schools and universities.
Nonetheless, Melanchthons rhetoric has not been made generally accessible in
popular vernacular translations. (Plett, Heinrich F. Rhetoric and Renaissance
Culture. Berlin; New York: de Gruyter, 2004, 19-22.)