Medieval rhetoric and poetic to 1400

A concise historical survey traces the development of rhetorical and poetic theory within medieval Latin education and literary practice. It explains how classical models—both sophistic showmanship and the Ciceronian tradition—were transmitted through late Roman schools and reshaped by medieval grammarians. School rhetoric concentrated on style and ornament within grammatica, while practical applications centered on sermons and letters; poetic practice flourished in Latin hymnody and emerging stanzaic forms that influenced vernacular poetry. Formal poetic theory remained largely pedagogical and often lagged behind vernacular verse narrative, a disjunction later critics such as Chaucer helped to expose.