Publication of the work Rhetoric and Ideology in the classrooms of Humanism: the progymnasmata

The Editorial Academia del Hispanismo has recently published the book Rhetoric and Ideology in the classrooms of Humanism: the progymnasmata, edited by Trinidad Arcos Pereira and in which researchers from the Division of Rhetoric, Humanism and Classical Tradition of the IATEXT Trinidad Arcos Pereira participate. Gregorio Rodríguez Herrera, María Elena Curbelo Tavío, Jesús Alexis Moreno García, María Dolores García de Paso Carrasco and María Elisa Cuyás de Torres, together with María Violeta Pérez Custodio, professor at the University of Cádiz, and Bartosz Awianowicz, professor at the Nicolaus University Copernicus from Torun (Poland) and Joaquim Pinheiro and Cristina Santos Pinheiro, professors at the University of Madeira. The book addresses the influence of the preliminary exercises of teaching the first levels of rhetoric, the progymnasmata, in the education of Humanism and its role as a vehicle for teaching rhetorical precepts and for disseminating the ideology of the Reformation and the Counter-reform in the classrooms of the 16th and 17th centuries. The works offer a broad perspective of what the progymnasmata meant. Thus, Joaquim and Cristina Pinheiro study synkrisis, an amplifying element of discourse present in the praise technique that we find in the progymnasmata manuals, and its use in Plutarch. Mª Violeta Pérez Custodio shows the importance of the translation of Aftonio by Francisco Escobar and its international diffusion, a diffusion that also knows the introduction to the exercises of Pedro Juan Núñez, although in this case without mentioning his name.Gregorio Rodríguez Herrera points out that one of the ways in which these preliminary exercises were used was by performing an epitome that summarized the main aspects; the study shows how Pierre Valens does not make a summary to the use, but rather elaborates a new work in a format, the pedagogical dialogue, that connects with the Ciceronian dialogue. Several works deal with the use of the progymnasmata in teaching the rhetoric of the Society of Jesus. Thus, Trinidad Arcos Pereira and María Dolores García de Paso expose the process of adaptation of the progymnasmata in the Company's rhetoric manuals and show the evolution of the Bravo, Pomey, Jouvancy and Dominique de Colonia manuals; María Elena Curbelo Tavío studies Charles Pajot's adaptation of these exercises in his rhetoric manual; María Elisa Cuyás de Torres deals with the application of the narration in the Rhetorica Christiana by Juan Bautista Escardó in order to make the sermons accessible to the people. Two other works reveal the use of the progymnasmata in the context of the Reformation; Jesús Alexis Moreno García reveals how Micraelio, a Pomeranian, uses his manual to indoctrinate his students and for this he uses a new method, with exercises that are carried out in groups and that aim to develop the creativity and critical spirit of his students; Bartosz Awianowicz exposes the confrontation between Catholics and Protestants, which is reflected in the classrooms, but also points out the special situation of the Baltic in which the interests of Catholics, Calvinists and Lutherans coexist, which contributed to the attenuation of religious controversies in part.

This book is the result of the research work carried out within the framework of the Puente Project "Rhetorical preceptives for the first levels of teaching in Humanism: tradition, rewriting, manipulation and originality" (GOB-ESP2019-17), funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Government of Spain.

The publishing house that publishes the book is the Academia del Hispanismo, which publishes scientific and academic books on Literature, Language, Latin America, Cinema ... in various collections of recognized prestige in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences. In the editorial prestige ranking SPI (Scholarly Publishers Indicators), prepared by CSIC, it has a valuation of 40.00 and is one of the publishers that has increased its editorial prestige the most in recent years.