History, Rhetoric, and ProofHistorian Carlo Ginzburg uses the occasion of his Menachem Stern Lectureship to present a provocative and characteristically brilliant examination of the relation between rhetoric and historiography. In four lectures, based on a wide range of texts -- Aristotle's Poetics; humanist Lorenzo Valla's tract exposing the Donation of Constantine as a forgery; an early 18th-century Jesuit historical account purporting to record the diatribe of a Mariana Island native against Spanish rule; and Proust's commentary on Flaubert's style -- he demonstrates that rhetoric, if properly understood, is related not only to ornament but to historical understanding and truth. Ginzburg discovers a middle ground between the empiricist or positivist view of history, and the current postmodern tendency to regard any historical account as just one among an infinity of possible narratives, distinguished or measured not by the standard of truth, but by rhetorical skill. As a whole, these lectures stake out a position that both mediates and transcends warring factions in the current historiographical debate. |
Contents
Introduction I | 1 |
Aristotle and History Once More | 38 |
Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine | 54 |
The Dialogic Element in Early Modern | 71 |
Reflections on a Blank | 92 |
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allusion ancient antiquarian argument Aristotle Aristotle's Rhetoric Athenians barbarous Berlin Bloch Bovary Burnyeat Callicles Cambridge Cantimori century Chine Cicero Classical constitutum critical culture dialogue discussion donation of Constantine Dorieus édifiantes et curieuses enthymeme especially essay European famous Flaubert Franz Overbeck Frédéric Friedrich Nietzsche Gerber Ginzburg Gobien Gorgias Greek Histoire des Isles historians historiography human Hurao's harangue idea Institutio Oratoria intellectual interpretation Isles Marianes Italian Jesuit Kristeller L'Éducation sentimentale l'histoire language Le Gobien letter Lettres édifiantes Lorenzo Valla Luther Madame Mascardi Maxime Du Camp Melians Menahem Stern mentioned metaphor missionaries Momigliano Montaigne Münich narrative nature Nietzsche-Studien Nietzsche's Olympic games oration Overbeck Paris passage perspective philology philoso philosophical Plato political proof Proust published qu'il Quintilian quoted remark rhetoric Roman Saint-Réal Sénécal Sentimental Education skeptical Socrates Solmsen Sprache Struever tekmērion Thucydides tion translation truth Turin Ueber Wahrheit verbum Wahrheit und Lüge words wrote