«De historico genere dicendi» en los Rhetoricorum Libri V de Jorge de Trebisonda

Abstract

George of Trebizond in his Rethoricorum Libri V chooses to present his historiographic preceptive by joining two schools: Cicero's Latin school and Hermogenes' Greek one. Thus, the chapter dealing with historiography is divided into four subjects. First, following Cicero, he explains historiographic precepts, such as the ordo temporum, character description, the comparison between historic and forensic discourse, but specifying new concepts as for example, the fact that the motion of affections must be accessory in History. The second part deals with the proper historiographic writing styles for which he takes hermogenic precepts, in it he agrees with the supremacy of Greatness --in the form of Abundance-- which must be balanced with Beauty and Solemnity. The third part, in which he deals with discourse forms of hisotriographic style, advices the use of ciceronian style regarding period construction. Finally, he praises, as a model, Titus Livy's style, which he considers worthy of imitating. It is important to highlight that for Trebizond History does not posses an instrumental function regarding rhetoric, but he acknowledges it has the status of an independent discipline possessing a set of discourse precepts of its own; this will be the foundation for the development of the artes historicae during the Spanish Golden Age.