ABSTRACT
The history of rhetoric is an important element of the general intellectual historical project. What is of real pertinence to a consideration of Juan Luis Vives’ rhetorical program is Ward’s contrast between the coherence and practicality or pragmatism of medieval rhetorical work with the fragmented, academic Renaissance approach to the classical rhetorical heritage. Vives’ rhetorical work perhaps moderates Ward’s contrast of medieval coherence and utility with the determinedly impractical ‘philological cults’ of the Renaissance. From Ward’s point of view, Vives seems to be more medieval than Renaissance. Indeed, the values of rhetorical pragmatism invest his account of the procedures and values of inquiry in general. Norena regards Vives as a good reader of Aristotle’s Rhetoric, and notes his appreciation of Aristotle’s systematization of rhetoric, which is, of course, nothing less than the full integration of the rhetoric with his psychological, ethical and political texts.
