Two Books of the Elements of Rhetoric

I advise them to add Caesareus <<

to Rodolphus, because whoever does this will seem to me to have completed the art, and will be a perfect artist if he has made the use of the art for himself either by writing or by disputing. I wanted to preface these things again in this place, not only to explain the reason for my plan, since I might seem to have changed this whole type of doctrine, but also to advise students on how they ought to complete this study. But the reasons why I published the Rhetorical books were far different. For I cannot accuse the writers of this art, as I reproached the crowd of Dialecticians. For no authors exist except the best ones, Cicero and Quintilian, who indeed excel so much in this genre that they have far surpassed all the Greeks whose writings we have seen. And Cicero left behind various works, some of which, written for the puerile grasp, can be proposed to adolescents to prepare them for other books that contain more serious precepts: therefore there is no reason why the writings of the moderns should be desired. But we published Rhetoric in the beginning so that we might show its kinship with Dialectics. For Dialectics cannot be understood unless it is compared to Rhetoric. And I hope these little books of mine will be useful to those who will later read Cicero and Quintilian. For we explain some of their precepts, and add examples, taken