This roundtable explores the role of Juan Luis Vives within early modern and rhetoric and humanist political thought in the light of Kaarlo Havu’s recent monograph entitled Juan Luis Vives: Politics, Rhetoric, and Emotions. The discussion focuses on two issues. First, it explores the reception of classical rhetoric in the largely monarchic environment of sixteenth-century Europe. Central reference points of classical rhetoric, such as Aristotle and Cicero, developed their views on eloquence in a republican or even democratic environment, which conditioned their views of rhetorical theory and the role of eloquence in civic life. Vives sustained that the political role of rhetoric could be maintained only if, in the new asymmetrical situation, direct speech was avoided and political counsel was conducted in the spirit of decorum that respected existing hierarchies. What is Vives’s place in the broader reception of classical rhetoric in Renaissance Europe and what other strategies for appropriating political rhetoric existed in the sixteenth century? Second, closely related to the first point, the panel discusses specific developments in Renaissance rhetorical theory – such as the stress on civility, the role of emotions, and the emphasis on literary genres – from the point of view of politics. Is it possible to connect particular changes within rhetorical theory to an altered political milieu? What other issues should be taken into account in writing the history of rhetoric in the sixteenth century?

Harald Braun (Reader in European History (1300-1700), Chair)

Brian Cummings (Professor of English and Related Literature at the University of York)

Kaarlo Havu (Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki)

Jennifer Richards (Joseph Cowen Professor of English Literature at the University of Newcastle)

Book Launch: Juan Luis Vives: Politics, Rhetoric, and Emotions