A good idea, in theory: Why Mathias of Linköping's Poetria fell short in practice

Martin Camargo

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Although highly innovative in its blend of medieval Aristotelian with Horatian and Ciceronian doctrine, the Poetria by the fourteenth-century Swedish writer Mathias of Linköping survives in only one manuscript copy and appears to have had little or no influence outside Sweden. Likely reasons for its failure to gain traction among late medieval teachers of Latin composition are (1) its sharp separation of prose from poetry, (2) its implication that verse composition is a more advanced subject than prose composition, and (3) its disproportionate reliance on theoretical precepts rather than illustrative examples.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)239-258
Number of pages20
JournalRhetorica - Journal of the History of Rhetoric
Volume35
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2017

Keywords

  • Aristotle
  • Art of poetry
  • Horace
  • Mathias of linköping
  • Medieval rhetoric
  • Sweden

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A good idea, in theory: Why Mathias of Linköping's Poetria fell short in practice'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this