Exam 7: Rhetoric in the Renaissance

Provide the term for the following definitions: -Rhetorically trained secretaries responsible for negotiating, recording, and communicating the many agreements that allowed Italian commercial cities to function.

Respond to the idea advocated by the Humanists that speech is the means by which human beings create civilization. Is this account too simple? Are there factors other than speech that could be said to be the basis for civilization?

Which of the following terms was the word Italian Humanists used for the source of emotions or passions in the human mind?

How were style and science related in the late Renaissance?

What was Valla's opinion regarding the relationship between rhetoric and philosophy?

What contemporary examples reflect that there is a connection between style and political or ideological commitments?

Describe Petrarch's interest in, and influence on, the study of rhetoric.

Identify two women who figure in the history of Renaissance rhetoric, and provide a brief description of the contributions or activities of each.

In what ways does the commercial life of modern democratic societies still depend on rhetorical skills? What studies would a new rhetoric, supportive of commercial and political life include?

Lorenzo Valla, perhaps the most influential of all humanist scholars, believed that rhetoric and oratory were only subordinate to philosophy, because philosophers had a superior sense of ethical understanding than the ordinary person.

Which of the following rhetoricians was a late Renaissance woman who encouraged women to seek social status through writing rather than beauty and is famous for developing a rhetorical theory centered on conversation?

What does it mean to say that Christine de Pizan was a polemical writer?

During the Renaissance period, rhetoric in England was banned for its connection with magic, as the Royal Society believed it was a way for rhetoricians to mislead and control the common people.

Identify some of the defining characteristics of Humanism.