Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric

Book excerpt: Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300-1475 demonstrates comprehensively the role of the medieval arts of language in the history of literary theory. This book brings together essential sources in the disciplines of grammar and rhetoric, materials that were instrumental for understanding literary form and composing in prose or verse. Grammar and rhetoric, the language sciences, were the basis of any education from antiquity through the Middle Ages, no matter what future career a student was going to pursue. Because literature itself was a key subject matter of grammatical teaching, and because rhetorical teaching focused on literary form, these were the disciplines that prepared students to interpret all kinds of texts. These arts constituted the abiding theoretical toolbox for anyone engaged in a life of letters.