Renaissance Argument: Valla and Agricola in the Traditions of Rhetoric and Dialectic

A study of Renaissance education in the use of language. It shows how humanists brought together the traditions of rhetoric, dialectic and poetry to produce a science of practical arguing in neo-classical Latin. It discusses Lorenzo Valla’s attempt in Repastinatio Dialecticae et Philosophiae (1433) to establish a new metaphysics and a reformed dialectic in opposition to the Aristotelian tradition. It also analyzes the treatment of the topics and the art of composition in Rudolph Agricola’s De Inventione Dialectica (1479). Mack describes the diffusion and reception of Agricola’s work and its influence on Erasmus, Vives, Melanchthon and Ramus. The book provides new interpretations of the two key texts of the Renaissance arts of language, and shows how Agricola influenced Renaissance teaching and practice of argument, composition and reading.