Wing A3695. First partially translated into English by Thomas Hobbes (c.1637) as A briefe of the art of rhetorique. Containing in substance all that Aristotle hath written in his three bookes of that subject, except onely what is not applicable to the English tongue.
A very fine copy unsophisticated copy of the first complete translation of “the most important single work on persuasion ever written.” “Aristotle’s Rhetoric has had an unparalleled influence on the development of the art of rhetoric. In addition to Aristotle’s disciples and followers, the so-called Peripatetic philosophers, famous Roman teachers of rhetoric, such as Cicero and Quintilian, frequently used elements stemming from Aristotle’s rhetorical theory” (Stanford Encylopedia of Philosophy).
Aristotle’s Rhetoric analyses and teaches the art of persuasion, not only in terms of how to construct a speech but also how to make a personal or emotive impression on the audience. The work is structured around three key elements sometimes referred to as the “rhetorical triangle”, namely: ‘ethos’, the character and presentation of the speaker; ‘pathos’, the emotional state or normative values of the listener; and ‘logos’, the message or substantive content of the argument itself.
Insofar as the art of rhetoric is sometimes considered to be opposed to the philosophical ideal of the exact pursuit of truth, many of the philosophically salient features of the Aristotelian rhetoric have gone under-appreciated. “It was not until the last few decades that scholars became aware of the fact that Aristotle’s rhetorical analysis of persuasion draws on many concepts and ideas that are also treated in his logical, ethical, political and psychological writings, so that the Rhetoric became increasingly perceived as well-integrated part of the Aristotelian oeuvre. Aristotle’s Rhetoric is inextricably connected with the history of ancient logic and is often taken as an important inspiration for modern argumentation theory” (Stanford).
The identity of the translator of the present complete English edition remains obscure. They are identified on the title page only as “the Translators of the ART of THINKING”, referring to the 1676 English translation of L’Art de Penser (1662) by Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole, and in the dedicatory epistle addressed to Henry Sydney (1641-1704) as “H.C.” This translation of Aristotle’s Rhetoric also includes as book four the pseudo-Aristotelian Rhetorica ad Alexandrum (see: Harwood (ed.), The Rhetorics of Thomas Hobbes and Bernard Lamy, 1986, p. 3, 161).
