ABSTRACT
The ultimate aim of rhetoric is to persuade, says Antonio Riccobono. He is at one with Carbone in maintaining that other arts attempt to persuade as well. Riccobono makes a distinction between rhetoric's aim and function, again referencing Aristotle, who pointed out that persuasion is not its function, 'but to see, theoresai, what might persuade in any matter'. Riccobono has thus broadened rhetoric beyond the traditional scope, extending it into all fields of knowledge. Riccobono has contributed some interesting nuances to the discussion of Renaissance views of rhetoric as antistrophic art: his opinion that rhetoric can be expanded to scientific matters and his innovation in the terminology of rhetorical argument. A humanist like Carbone, but even more Aristotelian in his teaching, was his contemporary Antonio Riccobono. Born in Rovigo in 1541, Riccobono studied in Venice and in Padua, where he obtained a doctorate in law.
