Empire of Eloquence
The Classical Rhetorical Tradition in Colonial Latin America and the Iberian World

This exploration of the culture of public speaking in the Iberian world places the renaissance revival of letters within a global context.

Stuart M. McManus (Author)

9781108830164, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 April 2021

320 pages
24 x 16 x 2.5 cm, 0.55 kg

'There can be little question that the author has succeeded in illustrating the many ways in which a meta-geographical study such as this one can add to our understanding of how a cultural phenomenon such as classical rhetoric was once able to span the globe … The volume concludes with a list of archives visited, as well as an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources that will certainly be of great value to anyone who wishes to pursue this subject further.' Carl P. E. Springer, Neo-Latin News

The global reach of the Spanish and Portuguese empires prompted a remarkable flourishing of the classical rhetorical tradition in various parts of the early modern world. Empire of Eloquence is the first study to examine this tradition as part of a wider global renaissance in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa, with a particular focus on the Iberian world. Spanning the sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, the book argues that the classical rhetorical tradition contributed to the ideological coherence and equilibrium of this early modern Iberian world, providing important occasions for persuasion, legitimation and eventual (and perhaps inevitable) confrontation. Drawing on archival collections in thirteen countries, Stuart M. McManus places these developments in the context of civic, religious and institutional rituals attended by the multi-ethnic population of the Iberian world and beyond, and shows how they influenced public speaking in non-European languages, such as Konkani and Chinese.

List of Figures
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: An Empire of Eloquence in a Global Renaissance
1. The Foundations of the Empire of Eloquence
2. Philip IV's Global Empire of Eloquence
3. A Japanese Cicero Redivivus
4. Indo-Humanist Eloquence
5. Centers, Peripheries and Identities in the Empire of Eloquence
6. The Republic of Eloquence
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], History of the Americas [HBJK], General & world history [HBG]