Thought-diction-figures-method-cola-word arrangement-cadence-rhythm: A self-standing sequence in Late Byzantine rhetorical handbooks

Abstract

The aspects of style termed ἔννοια, λέξις, σχήματα, μέθοδος, κῶλα, συνθήκη, ἀνάπαυσις, ῥυθμός, found in Hermogenes’ De Ideis, begin to appear as a self-standing sequence in post-twelfth century rhetorical handbooks. The sequence becomes the object of contemporary theoretical developments, responsive to late Byzantine literary and rhetorical practice. The eight elements are extrapolated and summarized in a single chapter in the treatise On the Eight Parts of the Rhetorical Discourse, contained in vol. 3 of Walz’s Rhetores Graeci, but are also present as an unfolded, multi-chapter sequence in two fourteenth-century compilations: the anonymous Rhetorica Marciana and the Synopsis Artis Rhetoricae by Joseph Rhacendyta. This is a new and separate curriculum development, which was used to complement instruction in the Hermogenean corpus.

Keywords

• rhetorical sequence
• elements of style
• hermogenean corpus
• rhetorica marciana
• joseph rhacendyta’s synopsis artis rhetoricae