ABSTRACT
During the early 18th century in France, a series of events in the life of Charles Rollin conspired to produce a work that would influence rhetorical pedagogy until well into the 19th century. Rollin was first elected Rector of the University of Paris in his late thirties, then reelected 20 years later; in the interim he served as principal of the College de Beauvais. He was forced to resign his offices, however, because of his Jansenist sympathies and his liaisons with prominent Jansenists. 1 In 1720 he retired, and he spent the last 20 years of his life writing and revising his treatise, De la Manière d'enseigner et d'étudier les belles lettres par rapport à l'esprit et au coeur. 2 Commonly known as the Traité des études, this work was first published between 1726 and 1728 and contained sections on the teaching of rhetoric and the practice of eloquence that formed a matrix of elements from neoclassical and belletristic rhetorical theories. 3
