§1 Introduction.
Virtues in the ars dictandi achieved by avoiding and removing vices.
§2 It is a virtue to
begin speeches, letters, privileges and testaments with a humble style and gradually
increase the level of style up to the end. The prophets, evangelists, apostles
and all the disciples of Christ observed this doctrine in both the Old and the New
Testments, with the exception of John the Evangelist. Christ himself employed simple
beginnings when he spoke in mortal flesh.
§3 The Latin and Greek
church fathers began with a humble style, a practice followed today by the Roman curia and
all dictators of emperors and kings, by philosophers and their posterity, and by todays
Greeks, from whose founts the streams of Latin eloquence flow. Since Boncompagno
wishes to follow such weighty authority, he confidently rejects the judgment of the
Orleans masters, who say that ornate words and quotations from authorities should always
be put in the beginning.
§4 Two exceptions to
the doctrine requiring that beginnings be made in the stilus humilis are sermons
and some penitential letters, which require quoted authorities at the beginning.
§5 The types of
penitential letters requiring quoted authorities are enumerated and a reason is given why
preaching requires authorities to be introduced.
§6 The prudent dictator
will exercize caution in quoting authorities.
§7 Invective against
plagiarists. Allusion to the fable of the tortoise, to the QTS incident, to
Horace Ep. 1.3.19-20; quotation from Buchimenon Libri materiarum XI.
§8 Words to avoid in
beginning a letter or a passage are listed.
§9 More words to avoid,
and some grammatical classes of words to avoid in beginning a letter or a passage. A
few words to avoid in beginning a sentence.
§10 Function and
necessity of conjuctions, adverbs and prepositions indicated by means of corporate
metaphors (shipbuilding and the human body).
§11 Conjunctions
change the whole meaning of an expression by either affirming or by doubting
(conjecturally).
§12 The conjunction
`if': its use in papal letters which rules on points of law, where points of fact are
still uncertain; its fundamental role in legal glosses.
§13 The affirmative,
doubting and negative uses of the conjuction `since' in letters of delegated judges.
Ornamental use of since. Although grammarians treat `since' as equivocal with
`because', they are not, just as `do' seems to have the same meaning as `make', one can
correctly say `I make a gift' but not `I do a gift'. Also `since' can better be put
at the beginning of a passage than `because'.
§14 Quote from
Buchimenon Libri transumptionum I to show that in rhetoric there are no truly
equivocal words, as the dialecticians consider them. Buchimenon's invective against
Aristotle.
§15 Two words similar
to `because' which cannot be put at the beginning of a passage. Opinion of some
(which Boncompagno considers absurd) about need for following words corresponding to
`since' or `because' placed at the beginning of any passage.
§16 Two citations from
Buchimenon Libri materiarum 5 show difference between rhetors and grammarians or
dialectitians.
§17 Criticism of
grammarians for following Aristotelian doctrine and criticism of above-stated opinion
concerning need for following words corresponding to initial `since' or `because'.
§18 Difference between
two different words meaning `although': one of them sometimes takes a following
corresponding word `yet'.
§19 Differences
between `when' and `while'.
§20 Differences
between `therefore' and `on that account'.
§21 Discussion of six
negative adverbs with stylistic cautions concerning usage.
§22 Further stylistic
advice about negatives, with specific strictures about letters, privileges and sermons, as
opposed to rhetorical orations.
§23 The use of the
adverbs `further' and `moreover' to make transitions in discourse.
§24 Differences among
eight adverbs of similitude. Some may be placed at the beginning of a passage,
others may not.
§25 It is a virtue to
avoid a deformed construction, such as when an adjective is placed to far from its noun,
which might obscure the meaning of discourse.
§26 It is a virtue to
place an adjective so that it does not seem to apply to two different nouns.
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© Steven M. Wight, Los Angeles 1998
Scrineum © Universitą di Pavia 1999