num_pages: 448
description: This book examines the teaching and practice of the twin arts of argumentation--rhetoric and dialectic--in the time of Galileo. Galileo was an ardent controversialist on behalf of his astronomical theories, yet many today are unacquainted with the kinds of argument that became a focal point in his famous trial. In this insightful work, Jean Dietz Moss and William A. Wallace combine their vast knowledge of rhetoric, history, and philosophy to explain the background of the dispute between science and religion.The authors present an engaging discussion of the prevailing modes of rhetorical and scientific arguments in Northern Italy during the Renaissance. They display primary texts on the arts of rhetoric and dialectic by authors whose thought was known to Galileo. Six sets of translations from the published works of two scholars, Ludovico Carbone and Antonio Riccobono, make up the major part of the book. The works examined are Carbone's Introduction to Logic , Table of Rhetoric of Cyprian Soarez , Art of Speaking , On Oratorical and Dialectical Invention , and The Divine Orator , and Riccobono's Aristotle's Art of Rhetoric . Never before have these works been available in English.Moss and Wallace here offer an original and important contribution to the history of rhetoric. The book will be welcomed by scholars in the field, as well as by those interested in the Renaissance, philosophy, and the history of science.Jean Dietz Moss is Professor Emerita of English at The Catholic University of America. She is the author of numerous books and articles including Novelties in the Heavens , and Rhetoric and Praxis . William A. Wallace, Professor of Philosophy, has taught at the University of Maryland and The Catholic University of America for many years. He is the author or editor of twenty books, including The Modeling of Nature , and more than three hundred scholarly articles.Praise for the "Two experts on Renaissance rhetoric, Moss and Wallace provide welcome translations of late-16th-century Latin writings on argumentation.... Precious little such material having been published in translation, this volume will be a boon to students of rhetoric, literature, history of science, and intellectual history. These texts provide much insight into how Renaissance university students were encouraged to think, write, debate. [Includes] a helpful introduction and useful annotations throughout...."--E.D. Hill, Choice"The texts presented here...are connected to one another and of importance not only to specialists in rhetoric and dialectic, but to anyone who has a serious interest in Galileo and the history of science in the early modern period. In laying out a background for the appreciation of these texts, the introduction becomes in itself a masterful summary of argumentation in this period and its roots in the classical past."--Craig Kallendorf,Sixteenth-Century News"Jean Dietz Moss, master of Renaissance rhetoric, and William A. Wallace, master of Renaissance logic, have joined forces.... All who are interested in the worlds of Renaissance dialectic and rhetoric, and the intellectual context of the great Galileo, should look at this book."--Irving A. Kelter, Renaissance Quarterly"Impeccable scholarship. Both authors are steeped in these materials, and the difficult points in the original texts are made lucid by the depth of understanding that they bring to the translations. The selections are much needed and long overdue."--Prof. Lawrence D. Green, University of Southern California
language: English
title: Rhetoric and Dialectic in the Time of Galileo
titlecomplete: Rhetoric and Dialectic in the Time of Galileo
ratings_count: 2
publisher: The Catholic University of America Press