ABSTRACT
In his review of Rhetoric in the Middle Ages, certainly the most ambitious and probably the most influential of Jerry Murphy's books, Judson Boyce Allen concludes with this assessment:
It is good, therefore, to have in Murphy's book a history of medieval rhetoric which not only provides, as any good reference book should, a well-annotated description of the present state of the art; but which also makes it possible, and necessary, to raise the questions which must be the basis for future and better understanding. For many years now Murphy has been insisting, with enthusiasm and persistence, that rhetoric is important. The spate of recent published studies, and of many others in progress, is witness that he is right. In a field so currently active, and whose primary documentation remains so substantially in manuscript, one must be especially grateful for a book which attempts to be comprehensive before it is possible to be fully conclusive. 1
