Menippeanism and humour in the "Rhetorimachia" of Anselm of Besate

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to point out some formal and thematic features of the Rhetorimachia, a didactic treatise about judicial rhetoric written by Anselm of Besate in the middle of the eleventh century. We intend to develop mainly two issues: to prove the decisive role that several elements typical of the menippean satire play in the Rhetorimachia in order to define more exactly its literary genus. Such features take on increasing importance as the work progresses; therefore, it can be said that the author intended to give his work a satiric «tone». Secondly, we pretend to show that the particular humour of the Rethorimachia results from the insertion of menippean elements within a work conceived primarily as a fictitious controuersia whose purpose was to illustrate the rules of the genus iudiciale.