En "The Judgment", a panegyric written by Emanuele Tesauro

Abstract

The article is about “Il Giudicio” (The Judgement), panegyric written in 1625 by the Italian earl and jesuit Emanuele Tesauro, one of the most important preceptists of wit in XVIIth century. The panegyric praises two Italian preachers, the jesuits Albrizzi and Orimbelli. In order to specify the rhetorical proportions applied to the sermons by the judgement of each of them, Tesauro applies ut pictura poesis, one of the main principles of Horace’s ars poetica. With it, Tesauro applies three kinds of oppositions to the sermos: distance, in terms of far or near reception; number of times of reception (sermons to be heard one time; sermons to be heard several times); obscurity/clarity (big or small quantity of metaphors and other tropes and figures of style that produce obscurity or clarity).