ABSTRACT
Rhetoric was a principal component of Renaissance intellectual culture and was, therefore, a foundational element of its education institutions. It was a broad art of communication, governing speaking and writing, conversation and correspondence. Rhetoric was taught in many ways and in many places, but its teaching was especially well-developed in the curriculum of the English grammar school and the Jesuits’ Ratio studiorum. Both of these institutions featured a systematic education in reading, writing, and rhetoric. These classically inspired pedagogical programs instilled in students a thorough understanding of words and things, of style and invention. But these two institutions educated boys, not girls, and so women were required to find alternative approaches to rhetorical education. The Renaissance, then, witnessed a study of rhetoric that was exceptionally thorough and comprehensive. Therefore, the Renaissance offers us useful lessons as we attempt to improve the teaching of reading, writing, and speaking in the twenty-first century.
