Geoffrey of Vinsauf
Encyclopedia
Geoffrey of Vinsauf is a representative of the early medieval grammarian movement, termed preceptive grammar by James J. Murphy
for its interest in teaching ars poetria (1971, vii ff.).
Ars poetria is a subdivision of the grammatical art (ars grammatica
) which synthesizes "rhetorical" and "grammatical" elements. The line of demarcation between these two fields is not firmly established in the Middle Ages
. Gallo
explains that "both of these liberal arts
taught composition and taught the student to examine the diction
, figurative language, and meters of the curriculum authors who were to serve as models for imitation. However it was rhetoric
and not grammar that was concerned with Inventio
n of subject matter and with dispositio
n or organization of the work" as well as memory
and delivery
(72).
Murphy explains that the medieval artes poetriae are divided into two types. First, there is the short, specialized type of treatise dealing with figurae
, colores, tropi, and other verbal ornaments. They appeared separately all over Europe, usually anonymous, and were incorporated in elementary schooling, as adjuncts to ordinary grammar instruction. The second type of ars poetriae includes such works as the Ars versificatoria (c. 1175) of Matthew of Vendôme
, the Laborintus (after 1213, before 1280) of Eberhard the German, the Ars versificaria (c. 1215) of Gervais de Melkley, the Poetria nova (1208–1213) and the Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi (after 1213) of Geoffrey of Vinsauf, and the De arte prosayca, metrica, et rithmica (after 1229) of John of Garland (1971, xxi-xxii). The artes poetriae constituted poetry as an academic discipline, and promoted its participation in the methods of logic
(Copeland).
, to whom the Poetria nova was prepared as a special gift. The traditional account of Geoffrey of Vinsauf provides further details of his biography: he is believed to be born in Normandy, but initially educated at St. Frideswide, Oxford. He is said to have returned to the Continent for further university study, first in Paris and later in Italy. He incurred the displeasure of Bishop Adam, allegedly after a quarrel in Paris with a certain Robert, once his friend, and was forced to appeal to the mercy of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Later, perhaps through the intercession of that prelate, he journeyed back to England to become tutor at Hampton. At a still later date he is said to have been sent on an embassy to Innocent III, and thus to have developed relations with the Holy See. His designation as "Vinsauf", or "de Vino Salvo", is traceable to a treatise attributed to him on the keeping of the vine and other plants (Murphy 29-30).
s and dedicated to Pope Innocent III
. The Poetria nova aimed to replace the standard text on verse composition, Horace
's Ars poetica
called the Poetria in the Middle Ages
, which was widely read and commented upon in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Karsten Friis-Jensen suggests that Geoffrey of Vinsauf's "main incentive for writing independent arts of poetry was probably a wish to systematize the exegetical material which generations of commentators
had collected around Horace's text, in a structure that was in better accordance with traditional didactics in the closely related art of rhetoric
" (364). The medieval teacher intended to reshape the Ars poetica
into an elementary textbook on composing poetry, "modeled on the Ciceronian rhetorics
and their medieval derivatives, such as the artes dictandi and the treatises on the colores rhetorici" (Camargo 949). The Poetria nova almost immediately became one of the standard textbooks in England and was incorporated into the curriculum on the Continent very soon thereafter. To its popularity testifies the number of manuscripts (200) in which this work is found and extensive commentary, which takes form of marginal glosses around a text of the Poetria nova and a text copied separately by itself.
Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi (Instruction in the Method and Art of Speaking and Versifying) written after 1213 is a prose counterpart of the Poetria nova which expands on amplification, abbreviation, and verbal ornamentation. It is preserved complete in three manuscripts and nearly complete in another two manuscripts. The thirteenth-century copies explicitly attribute the treatise to "magistri Galfridi" or "magistri Galfridi le Vin est sauf". Two other works are attributed to him: Summa de Coloribus Rhetoricis (A Summary of the Colors of Rhetoric), a briefer work, primarily on figures of speech, and the "Causa Magistri Gaufredi Vinesauf" ("The Apology of Master Geoffrey of Vinsauf"), a short poem of topical and political interest. He used to be regarded as the author of Itinerarium Regis Ricardi
, a narrative of the Third Crusade
, but this is certainly false.
The texts of the Poetria nova, Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi, and Summa de coloribus rhetoricis are included in Edmond Faral
, Les arts poétiques du XIIe et du XIIIe siècle (Paris, 1924; reprinted Paris, 1958), pages 197-262, 265-320, and 321-327 respectively. The Poetria nova has been translated into English three times: by Margaret F. Nims, Poetria nova (Toronto, 1967), by Ernest Gallo, The Poetria nova and its Sources in Early Rhetorical Doctrine (The Hague, 1971), and by Jane Baltzell Kopp, Poetria nova, in Three Medieval Rhetorical Arts, ed. James J. Murphy (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1971), pp. 32–108. Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi is translated by Roger Parr, Instruction in the Method and Art of Speaking and Versifying (Milwaukee, 1968). In this article, quotations are from Kopp's translation.
is discussed in figurative language. As Woods notes, the applicability of the instructions of Poetria nova to both verse and prose and the various ways it could be used in the classroom, combined with the range of styles that Geoffrey of Vinsauf used to illustrate techniques, made it the general all-purpose medieval rhetorical treatise par excellence (1).
A thirteenth century anonymous commentary on the Poetria nova notes the twofold nature of this book: first, the five parts of the book are the five parts of rhetoric
: Inventio
n, dispositio
n, style
, memory, and delivery
; second, the Poetria nova is itself a rhetorical discourse with the necessary parts: exordium
, narratio, divisio, confutatio, and conclusio. Its author is, consequently, an accomplished theoretician, orator, and "a good teacher" (Woods 668-9).
The Poetria nova incorporates Ciceronian precept on invention
and arrangement, Horatian doctrine on decorum, and instructions on style including the tropes, figures of words
and figures of thought derived from the pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herennium
. Gallo summarizes the major topics of the Poetria nova as follows (numbers in parentheses refer to line numbers of the original Latin verse) (69):
Figurative language is discussed in detail in the Poetria nova, which marks this treatise as grammatical. However, two of the central parts of the Poetria nova - Inventio
n of subject matter and dispositio
n or organization of the work - belong to the domain of rhetoric
. Likewise, memory
and delivery
are traditionally affiliated with rhetoric
. The Poetria nova thus constitutes an intersection of grammar and rhetoric
in the medieval curriculum.
The Poetria nova opens with a famous passage about planning a poem and defining the limits of its subject matter. Geoffrey of Vinsauf distinguishes between the natural order and the artificial or artistic order in which the author can narrate the events.Geoffrey of Vinsauf prefers the artificial order and recommends a proverbial opening.
The subject matter can be presented either through a lengthy treatment or a brief recapitulation of the story. Among the methods of amplification are refining or dwelling on a point; periphrasis
; comparison; apostrophe
; prosopopeia; digression
; description; and opposition. Brevity of the narration can be achieved by the following devices: emphasis, articulus, absolute ablative "without a rower" [i.e. a preposition], skillful indication of one thing among the rest, "chains removed from between clauses" [i.e. omitting conjunctions], the sense of many clauses in one, and omitting repetition of the same word.
Geoffrey of Vinsauf distinguishes between ornatus gravis ['difficult/serious/dignified ornament'] and ornatus levis ['easy/pleasant/light ornament']. Gravitas can be achieved by using the ten tropes listed in the pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herennium
.The chief trope is metaphor
. The ornatus levis includes the figures of diction and of thought given in the Rhetorica ad Herennium
.These figures are for the most part non-metaphorical.
The doctrine of conversion is a systematic method of varying a given sentence while preserving its meaning to make the sequence of words pleasant. The doctrine of determination consists primarily of creating a long sequence of brief phrases. This is the method and the manner of Sidonius
. The contrary practice is that of Seneca
: to round off the verses with a quick conclusion. Geoffrey of Vinsauf, however, prefers to be "neither as long, nor as short, rather both long and short, being made both out of neither".
The remaining doctrines are treated very briefly. Words should be carefully chosen to keep the balance of meaning and form. The characters' actions and their speeches should be appropriate for their age, and the overall color should be in harmony with the subject. Excessive alliteration
, awkward violation of word order, and overly long periods are stylistic faults to be avoided. To polish his work an author has to apply "first the mind, second the ear, and third and last, that which should conclude the matter - usage". Only delight fosters memory. In delivery, one must follow the sense imitating in a controlled manner the emotions called for by the subject. Geoffrey of Vinsauf concludes his treatise with the observation that "power comes from speech, since life and death rest in its hands; however, language may perchance be aided, in moderation, by both expression and gesture".
(d. 1388), and John Gower
(ca. 1330-1408). Chaucer's parody in the Nun's Priest's Tale of Geoffrey of Vinsauf's use of apostrophe
seems to ridicule the instruction provided in the Poetria nova, and has therefore been interpreted as Chaucer's contempt for Geoffrey of Vinsauf's doctrine. A more profound examination of Chaucer's principles of composition, however, reveals that the essential scheme of the Wife of Bath's Prologue
(specifically, lines 193-828) conforms to the doctrine promulgated by Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Documentum. The integration of the Poetria nova precepts into Troilus and Criseyde
I, 1065-71 reflects Chaucer's interest in rhetorical doctrine in general, and in Geoffrey of Vinsauf's in particular.
The contribution of Geoffrey of Vinsauf to the artes poetriae is acknowledged by such distinguished rhetoricians, as John of Garland (ca. 1180 - ca. 1258), a teacher of grammar and literature at the University of Paris, in the Parisiana poetria (known also as De arte prosayca, metrica, et rithmica, written and revised probably between 1220 and 1235), and Eberhard the German in the Laborintus. Geoffrey of Vinsauf is praised by Gervais of Melkley and Desiderius Erasmus
(1469–1536). Kelly asserts that understanding and appreciation of the writings of the great medieval poets, such as Chaucer, Dante
, Gottfried von Strassburg
, and Chrétien de Troyes
, can only be fully achieved if studied in the light of the instruction contained in treatises like Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Poetria nova and Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi.
James J. Murphy
James J. Murphy was a United States Representative from New York. He was born in Brooklyn. He was educated in the public schools of Staten Island and served as a noncommissioned officer with the First New York Cavalry on the Mexican border in 1916...
for its interest in teaching ars poetria (1971, vii ff.).
Ars poetria is a subdivision of the grammatical art (ars grammatica
Ars grammatica
An Ars grammatica is a generic or proper title for surveys of Latin Grammar.Extant works known as Ars grammatica have been written by*Aelius Donatus*Maurus Servius Honoratus*Diomedes Grammaticus*Charisius*Pseudo-Remmius Palaemon...
) which synthesizes "rhetorical" and "grammatical" elements. The line of demarcation between these two fields is not firmly established in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. Gallo
Gallo
Gallo can mean:*related to Gaul, as in Gallo-Roman culture*Gallo language, a regional language of France*Gallo , from Guatemala*Gallo Matese, a commune of 761 inhabitants in the province of Caserta, Italy...
explains that "both of these liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
taught composition and taught the student to examine the diction
Diction
Diction , in its original, primary meaning, refers to the writer's or the speaker's distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression in a poem or story...
, figurative language, and meters of the curriculum authors who were to serve as models for imitation. However it was rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
and not grammar that was concerned with Inventio
Inventio
Inventio is the system or method used for the discovery of arguments in Western rhetoric and comes from the Latin word, meaning "invention" or "discovery"...
n of subject matter and with dispositio
Dispositio
See also: Disposition Dispositio is the system used for the organization of arguments in Western classical rhetoric. The word is Latin, and can be translated as "organization" or "arrangement."...
n or organization of the work" as well as memory
Memoria
Memoria was the term for aspects involving memory in Western classical rhetoric. The word is Latin, and can be translated as "memory."It was one of five canons in classical rhetoric concerned with the crafting and delivery of speeches and prose.The art of rhetoric grew out of oratory, which was...
and delivery
Pronuntiatio
Pronuntiatio was the discipline of delivering speeches in Western classical rhetoric. It is the one of five canons of classical rhetoric that concern the crafting and delivery of speeches. In literature the equivalent of ancient pronuntiatio is the recitation of epics Pronuntiatio was the...
(72).
Murphy explains that the medieval artes poetriae are divided into two types. First, there is the short, specialized type of treatise dealing with figurae
Figure of speech
A figure of speech is the use of a word or words diverging from its usual meaning. It can also be a special repetition, arrangement or omission of words with literal meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it, as in idiom, metaphor, simile,...
, colores, tropi, and other verbal ornaments. They appeared separately all over Europe, usually anonymous, and were incorporated in elementary schooling, as adjuncts to ordinary grammar instruction. The second type of ars poetriae includes such works as the Ars versificatoria (c. 1175) of Matthew of Vendôme
Matthew of Vendôme
Matthew of Vendôme was a French poet of the twelfth century, writing in Latin. He was a pupil of Bernard Silvestris, at Tours, as he himself writes. He is known for his Ars Versificatoria, a theoretical work on versification.According to E. R. Curtius,.....
, the Laborintus (after 1213, before 1280) of Eberhard the German, the Ars versificaria (c. 1215) of Gervais de Melkley, the Poetria nova (1208–1213) and the Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi (after 1213) of Geoffrey of Vinsauf, and the De arte prosayca, metrica, et rithmica (after 1229) of John of Garland (1971, xxi-xxii). The artes poetriae constituted poetry as an academic discipline, and promoted its participation in the methods of logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
(Copeland).
Biography
We know very little about the life of Geoffrey of Vinsauf. From his Poetria nova we learn that he was at one time in England before going to Rome during the pontificate of Innocent IIIPope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III was Pope from 8 January 1198 until his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni....
, to whom the Poetria nova was prepared as a special gift. The traditional account of Geoffrey of Vinsauf provides further details of his biography: he is believed to be born in Normandy, but initially educated at St. Frideswide, Oxford. He is said to have returned to the Continent for further university study, first in Paris and later in Italy. He incurred the displeasure of Bishop Adam, allegedly after a quarrel in Paris with a certain Robert, once his friend, and was forced to appeal to the mercy of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Later, perhaps through the intercession of that prelate, he journeyed back to England to become tutor at Hampton. At a still later date he is said to have been sent on an embassy to Innocent III, and thus to have developed relations with the Holy See. His designation as "Vinsauf", or "de Vino Salvo", is traceable to a treatise attributed to him on the keeping of the vine and other plants (Murphy 29-30).
Works and Bibliography
The Poetria nova is a 2,000-line poem written around 1210 in Latin hexameterHexameter
Hexameter is a metrical line of verse consisting of six feet. It was the standard epic metre in classical Greek and Latin literature, such as in the Iliad and Aeneid. Its use in other genres of composition include Horace's satires, and Ovid's Metamorphoses. According to Greek mythology, hexameter...
s and dedicated to Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III was Pope from 8 January 1198 until his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni....
. The Poetria nova aimed to replace the standard text on verse composition, Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
's Ars poetica
Ars Poetica
Ars Poetica is a term meaning "The Art of Poetry" or "On the Nature of Poetry". Early examples of Ars Poetica by Aristotle and Horace have survived and have since spawned many other poems that bear the same name...
called the Poetria in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, which was widely read and commented upon in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Karsten Friis-Jensen suggests that Geoffrey of Vinsauf's "main incentive for writing independent arts of poetry was probably a wish to systematize the exegetical material which generations of commentators
Commentary (philology)
In philology, a commentary is a line-by-line or even word-by-word explication usually attached to an edition of a text in the same or an accompanying volume. It may draw on methodologies of close reading and literary criticism, but its primary purpose is to elucidate the language of the text and...
had collected around Horace's text, in a structure that was in better accordance with traditional didactics in the closely related art of rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
" (364). The medieval teacher intended to reshape the Ars poetica
Ars Poetica
Ars Poetica is a term meaning "The Art of Poetry" or "On the Nature of Poetry". Early examples of Ars Poetica by Aristotle and Horace have survived and have since spawned many other poems that bear the same name...
into an elementary textbook on composing poetry, "modeled on the Ciceronian rhetorics
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
and their medieval derivatives, such as the artes dictandi and the treatises on the colores rhetorici" (Camargo 949). The Poetria nova almost immediately became one of the standard textbooks in England and was incorporated into the curriculum on the Continent very soon thereafter. To its popularity testifies the number of manuscripts (200) in which this work is found and extensive commentary, which takes form of marginal glosses around a text of the Poetria nova and a text copied separately by itself.
Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi (Instruction in the Method and Art of Speaking and Versifying) written after 1213 is a prose counterpart of the Poetria nova which expands on amplification, abbreviation, and verbal ornamentation. It is preserved complete in three manuscripts and nearly complete in another two manuscripts. The thirteenth-century copies explicitly attribute the treatise to "magistri Galfridi" or "magistri Galfridi le Vin est sauf". Two other works are attributed to him: Summa de Coloribus Rhetoricis (A Summary of the Colors of Rhetoric), a briefer work, primarily on figures of speech, and the "Causa Magistri Gaufredi Vinesauf" ("The Apology of Master Geoffrey of Vinsauf"), a short poem of topical and political interest. He used to be regarded as the author of Itinerarium Regis Ricardi
Itinerarium Regis Ricardi
The Itinerarium Regis Ricardi is a Latin prose narrative of the Third Crusade, 1189-1192. The first part of the book concentrates on Saladin's conquests and the early stages of the crusade, with a long description of the expedition of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa...
, a narrative of the Third Crusade
Third Crusade
The Third Crusade , also known as the Kings' Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin...
, but this is certainly false.
The texts of the Poetria nova, Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi, and Summa de coloribus rhetoricis are included in Edmond Faral
Edmond Faral
Edmond Faral was a French medievalist. He became in 1924 Professor of Latin literature at the Collège de France.He wrote his dissertation on the jongleurs, and E. R. Curtius states that he was the first to recognize an influence of the medieval Latin poetics and rhetoric on Old French poetry...
, Les arts poétiques du XIIe et du XIIIe siècle (Paris, 1924; reprinted Paris, 1958), pages 197-262, 265-320, and 321-327 respectively. The Poetria nova has been translated into English three times: by Margaret F. Nims, Poetria nova (Toronto, 1967), by Ernest Gallo, The Poetria nova and its Sources in Early Rhetorical Doctrine (The Hague, 1971), and by Jane Baltzell Kopp, Poetria nova, in Three Medieval Rhetorical Arts, ed. James J. Murphy (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1971), pp. 32–108. Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi is translated by Roger Parr, Instruction in the Method and Art of Speaking and Versifying (Milwaukee, 1968). In this article, quotations are from Kopp's translation.
The Poetria nova
The Poetria nova is a preceptive treatise, that is, it gives a specific advice to future writers about the composition of poetry. Its handbook genre is reinforced by multiple illustrations of its precepts entirely invented by Geoffrey of Vinsauf, rather than culled from classical authors. The text itself serves as an illustration of techniques it teaches. Thus, the treatment of amplification is amplified, the treatment of abbreviation is abbreviated, metaphorMetaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
is discussed in figurative language. As Woods notes, the applicability of the instructions of Poetria nova to both verse and prose and the various ways it could be used in the classroom, combined with the range of styles that Geoffrey of Vinsauf used to illustrate techniques, made it the general all-purpose medieval rhetorical treatise par excellence (1).
A thirteenth century anonymous commentary on the Poetria nova notes the twofold nature of this book: first, the five parts of the book are the five parts of rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
: Inventio
Inventio
Inventio is the system or method used for the discovery of arguments in Western rhetoric and comes from the Latin word, meaning "invention" or "discovery"...
n, dispositio
Dispositio
See also: Disposition Dispositio is the system used for the organization of arguments in Western classical rhetoric. The word is Latin, and can be translated as "organization" or "arrangement."...
n, style
Elocutio
Elocutio is the term for the mastery of stylistic elements in Western classical rhetoric and comes from the Latin loqui, "to speak". Although today we associate the word elocution more with eloquent speaking, for the classical rhetorician it connoted "style".It is the third of the five canons of...
, memory, and delivery
Pronuntiatio
Pronuntiatio was the discipline of delivering speeches in Western classical rhetoric. It is the one of five canons of classical rhetoric that concern the crafting and delivery of speeches. In literature the equivalent of ancient pronuntiatio is the recitation of epics Pronuntiatio was the...
; second, the Poetria nova is itself a rhetorical discourse with the necessary parts: exordium
Exordium (rhetoric)
In Western classical rhetoric, the exordium was the introductory portion of an oration. The term is Latin and the Greek equivalent was called the Proem or Prooimion....
, narratio, divisio, confutatio, and conclusio. Its author is, consequently, an accomplished theoretician, orator, and "a good teacher" (Woods 668-9).
The Poetria nova incorporates Ciceronian precept on invention
Invention
An invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social...
and arrangement, Horatian doctrine on decorum, and instructions on style including the tropes, figures of words
Figure of speech
A figure of speech is the use of a word or words diverging from its usual meaning. It can also be a special repetition, arrangement or omission of words with literal meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal meaning of the words in it, as in idiom, metaphor, simile,...
and figures of thought derived from the pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herennium
Rhetorica ad Herennium
The Rhetorica ad Herennium, formerly attributed to Cicero but of unknown authorship, is the oldest surviving Latin book on rhetoric, dating from the 90s BC, and is still used today as a textbook on the structure and uses of rhetoric and persuasion....
. Gallo summarizes the major topics of the Poetria nova as follows (numbers in parentheses refer to line numbers of the original Latin verse) (69):
| I. | Introduction; Divisions of the art of rhetoric (verses 1-86). |
| II. | Arrangement, including the natural and artificial openings (vv. 87-202). |
| III. | Amplification and Abbreviation (vv. 203-741). |
| IV. | Stylistic ornament (vv. 742-1592). |
| V. | Conversion (vv. 1593-1765). |
| VI. | Determination (vv. 1766-1846). |
| VII. | Miscellaneous advice on choice of words, humor, faults to avoid (vv. 1847-1973). |
| VIII. | Memory and delivery (vv. 1974-2070). |
Figurative language is discussed in detail in the Poetria nova, which marks this treatise as grammatical. However, two of the central parts of the Poetria nova - Inventio
Inventio
Inventio is the system or method used for the discovery of arguments in Western rhetoric and comes from the Latin word, meaning "invention" or "discovery"...
n of subject matter and dispositio
Dispositio
See also: Disposition Dispositio is the system used for the organization of arguments in Western classical rhetoric. The word is Latin, and can be translated as "organization" or "arrangement."...
n or organization of the work - belong to the domain of rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
. Likewise, memory
Memoria
Memoria was the term for aspects involving memory in Western classical rhetoric. The word is Latin, and can be translated as "memory."It was one of five canons in classical rhetoric concerned with the crafting and delivery of speeches and prose.The art of rhetoric grew out of oratory, which was...
and delivery
Pronuntiatio
Pronuntiatio was the discipline of delivering speeches in Western classical rhetoric. It is the one of five canons of classical rhetoric that concern the crafting and delivery of speeches. In literature the equivalent of ancient pronuntiatio is the recitation of epics Pronuntiatio was the...
are traditionally affiliated with rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
. The Poetria nova thus constitutes an intersection of grammar and rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
in the medieval curriculum.
The Poetria nova opens with a famous passage about planning a poem and defining the limits of its subject matter. Geoffrey of Vinsauf distinguishes between the natural order and the artificial or artistic order in which the author can narrate the events.Geoffrey of Vinsauf prefers the artificial order and recommends a proverbial opening.
The subject matter can be presented either through a lengthy treatment or a brief recapitulation of the story. Among the methods of amplification are refining or dwelling on a point; periphrasis
Periphrasis
In linguistics, periphrasis is a device by which a grammatical category or grammatical relationship is expressed by a free morpheme , instead of being shown by inflection or derivation...
; comparison; apostrophe
Apostrophe (figure of speech)
Apostrophe is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea...
; prosopopeia; digression
Digression
Digression is a section of a composition or speech that is an intentional change of subject. In Classical rhetoric since Corax of Syracuse, especially in Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, the digression was a regular part of any oration or composition...
; description; and opposition. Brevity of the narration can be achieved by the following devices: emphasis, articulus, absolute ablative "without a rower" [i.e. a preposition], skillful indication of one thing among the rest, "chains removed from between clauses" [i.e. omitting conjunctions], the sense of many clauses in one, and omitting repetition of the same word.
Geoffrey of Vinsauf distinguishes between ornatus gravis ['difficult/serious/dignified ornament'] and ornatus levis ['easy/pleasant/light ornament']. Gravitas can be achieved by using the ten tropes listed in the pseudo-Ciceronian Rhetorica ad Herennium
Rhetorica ad Herennium
The Rhetorica ad Herennium, formerly attributed to Cicero but of unknown authorship, is the oldest surviving Latin book on rhetoric, dating from the 90s BC, and is still used today as a textbook on the structure and uses of rhetoric and persuasion....
.The chief trope is metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
. The ornatus levis includes the figures of diction and of thought given in the Rhetorica ad Herennium
Rhetorica ad Herennium
The Rhetorica ad Herennium, formerly attributed to Cicero but of unknown authorship, is the oldest surviving Latin book on rhetoric, dating from the 90s BC, and is still used today as a textbook on the structure and uses of rhetoric and persuasion....
.These figures are for the most part non-metaphorical.
The doctrine of conversion is a systematic method of varying a given sentence while preserving its meaning to make the sequence of words pleasant. The doctrine of determination consists primarily of creating a long sequence of brief phrases. This is the method and the manner of Sidonius
Sidonius Apollinaris
Gaius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius or Saint Sidonius Apollinaris was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is "the single most important surviving author from fifth-century Gaul" according to Eric Goldberg...
. The contrary practice is that of Seneca
Seneca the Elder
Lucius or Marcus Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Elder and Seneca the Rhetorician , was a Roman rhetorician and writer, born of a wealthy equestrian family of Cordoba, Hispania...
: to round off the verses with a quick conclusion. Geoffrey of Vinsauf, however, prefers to be "neither as long, nor as short, rather both long and short, being made both out of neither".
The remaining doctrines are treated very briefly. Words should be carefully chosen to keep the balance of meaning and form. The characters' actions and their speeches should be appropriate for their age, and the overall color should be in harmony with the subject. Excessive alliteration
Alliteration
In language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of Three or more words or phrases. Alliteration has historically developed largely through poetry, in which it more narrowly refers to the repetition of a consonant in any syllables that, according to...
, awkward violation of word order, and overly long periods are stylistic faults to be avoided. To polish his work an author has to apply "first the mind, second the ear, and third and last, that which should conclude the matter - usage". Only delight fosters memory. In delivery, one must follow the sense imitating in a controlled manner the emotions called for by the subject. Geoffrey of Vinsauf concludes his treatise with the observation that "power comes from speech, since life and death rest in its hands; however, language may perchance be aided, in moderation, by both expression and gesture".
Influence
Popularity of Geoffrey of Vinsauf's didactic treatises has raised the question of possible influence on the later English poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1342-1400), Thomas UskThomas Usk
Thomas Usk was appointed the under-sheriff of London by Richard II in 1387.- Author of The Testament of Love :Born in London, he is the author of The Testament of Love, which was once thought to be by Geoffrey Chaucer.- Appeal :...
(d. 1388), and John Gower
John Gower
John Gower was an English poet, a contemporary of William Langland and a personal friend of Geoffrey Chaucer. He is remembered primarily for three major works, the Mirroir de l'Omme, Vox Clamantis, and Confessio Amantis, three long poems written in French, Latin, and English respectively, which...
(ca. 1330-1408). Chaucer's parody in the Nun's Priest's Tale of Geoffrey of Vinsauf's use of apostrophe
Apostrophe (figure of speech)
Apostrophe is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea...
seems to ridicule the instruction provided in the Poetria nova, and has therefore been interpreted as Chaucer's contempt for Geoffrey of Vinsauf's doctrine. A more profound examination of Chaucer's principles of composition, however, reveals that the essential scheme of the Wife of Bath's Prologue
The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale
"The Wife of Bath's Tale" and prologue are among the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. They give insight into the role of women in the Late Middle Ages and are probably of interest to Chaucer himself, for the character is one of his most developed ones, with her prologue twice as...
(specifically, lines 193-828) conforms to the doctrine promulgated by Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Documentum. The integration of the Poetria nova precepts into Troilus and Criseyde
Troilus and Criseyde
Troilus and Criseyde is a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer which re-tells in Middle English the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde set against a backdrop of war in the Siege of Troy. It was composed using rime royale and probably completed during the mid 1380s. Many Chaucer scholars regard it...
I, 1065-71 reflects Chaucer's interest in rhetorical doctrine in general, and in Geoffrey of Vinsauf's in particular.
The contribution of Geoffrey of Vinsauf to the artes poetriae is acknowledged by such distinguished rhetoricians, as John of Garland (ca. 1180 - ca. 1258), a teacher of grammar and literature at the University of Paris, in the Parisiana poetria (known also as De arte prosayca, metrica, et rithmica, written and revised probably between 1220 and 1235), and Eberhard the German in the Laborintus. Geoffrey of Vinsauf is praised by Gervais of Melkley and Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus , known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and a theologian....
(1469–1536). Kelly asserts that understanding and appreciation of the writings of the great medieval poets, such as Chaucer, Dante
DANTE
Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe is a not-for-profit organisation that plans, builds and operates the international networks that interconnect the various national research and education networks in Europe and surrounding regions...
, Gottfried von Strassburg
Gottfried von Strassburg
Gottfried von Strassburg is the author of the Middle High German courtly romance Tristan and Isolt, an adaptation of the 12th-century Tristan and Iseult legend. Gottfried's work is regarded, alongside Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and the Nibelungenlied, as one of the great narrative...
, and Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère who flourished in the late 12th century. Perhaps he named himself Christian of Troyes in contrast to the illustrious Rashi, also of Troyes...
, can only be fully achieved if studied in the light of the instruction contained in treatises like Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Poetria nova and Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi.