ABSTRACT
Writing about the "Survival of the Classical Traditions" in Rhetoric in the Middle Ages (89-90), J, J. Murphy said, "It would be unrealistic to assume that the classical works received unqualified acceptance, or even unqualified respect, in comparison to treatises produced during the Middle Ages. Rather, it might be more accurate to say that the ancient artes are to be seen competing for the attention of the medieval writer and speaker—competing, that is, against the lure of the 'modern' and specialized works which sprang up in various fields after about 1050—but competing with the advantage of antiquitas." As a footnote to Professor Murphy's observation I briefly explore in this chapter the attitudes toward their predecessors shown by teachers and writers in the western tradition of rhetoric before 1050.
