Antonio Riccobono: The Teaching of Rhetoric in 16th-Century Padua

One of the little studied texts for the teaching of rhetoric in the late Renaissance is the Latin translation of Aristotle's Rhetoric published by Antonio Riccobono in 1579, with an accompanying commentary, also in Latin. ¹ In this chapter, whose aim is to honor Professor James J. Murphy—himself an indefatigable teacher of rhetoric and translator of Latin rhetoric texts—I analyze Riccobono's views on the nature of rhetoric. These Riccobono presents in the first treatise of his commentary, a treatise he entitles De natura rhetoricae, where he is concerned not only with explicating Aristotle's views on the subject but also with treating rhetoric's relation to other disciplines in the curriculum of his day. Although courses at the University of Padua were then quite different from those now offered in an American university, I hope that the ideas of this 16th-century humanist prove of interest to readers acquainted with Professor Murphy's many explorations of the pedagogy of rhetoric in times before our own.