The evidence of things not seen

Abstract

A symposium on legal emblematics, particularly in the context of renaissance humanism, provides an opportunity to examines the manner in which western institutions and their relevant offices are constituted. In rhetorical terms, decorum designated a platform best suited to achieving the goals of a public orator. In short, decorum provided a space for a heavily regulated style of language considered by the humanists to be eloquent. It almost goes without saying that, for such humanists, the term 'eloquence' which, via Cicero, insinuated itself into the new methodological style of the studia humanitatis , carried more than the expressive qualities of speech. A study of eloquence reveals that it replaces the divine cause with an equally, if not more, obscure source of civic illumination and civic organization. In the most general terms, the style of renaissance humanists can be situated anywhere between the ornate and formal eloquence of Ciceronianism and the plain Attic style of the non-Ciceronians.

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