progymnasmata

Note 13: Vituperation (or psogos), an invective that discredits an adversary, is another of the progymnasmata exercises.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

Although there are plenty of examples of ekphrasis in classical literature, the earliest extant instructions on how to compose one and what its functions are appear in the Hellenistic composition handbooks known as progymnasmata (here is an example, by Aphthonius).

Obama’s Inauguration Poem: Ekphrasis, Evoking pictures, swaying emotions, preparing expositions 2008

Note 39: Fundamental to writing and oration from ancient Rome, the progymnasmata trained students to work with visual figures and compositional units.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

Note 132: This trope exemplifies the progymnasmata exercise of chreia. back

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

According to Aphthonius, the progymnasmata comprised 14 exercises.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

Note 48: Another of the progymnasmata exercises, the encomium offered "basic training" for epideictic rhetoric, although it was also useful in deliberative and forensic oratory.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

Note 47: The product of a progymnasmata exercise, gnome, a maxim, is an adaptation (abstraction or elaboration) of a preexisting moral statement.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

Note 11: Epideictic oration, or elocution, addresses a present circumstance, treating a subject with the progymnasmata exercises of praise (encomium) or blame (invective).

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

Extended Caption 11Exercises in the progymnasmata sharpened elocution, fortifying the student's memory with ennobling passages of poetry and literature like those arrayed in the studioli.

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008

Note 54: Ethical fabulation, employing animals, is another of the progymnasmata exercises. back

Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro 2008