Rhetoric

Because rhetoric was taught formally in Latin in the all-male spaces of grammar schools, universities, and the Inns of Court, it has been hard to integrate women into Renaissance histories of the art. Recognizing the shift from early work on the unflattering representation of female speech in the 1980s, to the recovery over several decades of eloquent women, this entry argues for the full integration of women in future histories. It recognizes the many different routes by which women could acquire eloquence, from learned fathers and brothers, or each other, to auditing as well as writing, and reading religious as well as classical literature. Translation too played an important role in supporting vernacular humanism.