Open AccessEpistola Erudita of Justus Lipsius
Author(s) -
Wojciech Ryczek
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
terminus
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2084-3844
pISSN - 2082-0984
DOI - 10.4467/20843844te.19.009.11117
Subject(s) - erasmus+ , rhetorical question , rhetoric , literature , humanism , philosophy , conversation , transcription (linguistics) , art , the renaissance , rhetorical device , art history , theology , linguistics
This paper presents (in the form of transcription and translation) a letter written by a humanist and classical scholar, Iustus Lipsius (1547–1606), which its Cracow editor entitled Epistola erudita (1602). The rhetorical analysis of this text is based on Lipsius’ treatise Epistolica institutio (The Principles of Letter-Writing). The main problem concerns the role of traditional rhetoric in epistolography, especially if the letter is not reduced to a formal document built of template formulas. Early-modern epistolography (Petrarca, Erasmus, Lipsius, Vives) revives the ancient tradition of writing letters, according to which a letter is a kind of written conversation. It gives the sender and the addressee a unique opportunity to meet each other in the symbolic universe of the text.