Publication details
Vir excellentissimus: A search for traces of classical encomiastic structure in Cosmas’s praises of persons
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2006 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | Laetae segetes. Griechische und Lateinische Studien an der Masaryk Universität und Universität Wien |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Linguistics |
| Keywords | Praise; Latin Literature; Middle Ages; Kosmas; Chronicle; Encomium |
| Description | The article deals with the literary genre of laus or laudatio (encomion) in the most important Czech – Latin chronicle Cosmae Pragensis Chronica Boemorum (1122 – 1125). At the beginning some basic information is provided about the genre in the late antiquity and about its development to the high Middle Ages. Rhetorical schools of the late antiquity with their handbooks of rules for composing literary texts in practice (progymnasmata, praeexercitamina) had the crucial impact on early medieval poetic theory concernig encomium. The following text is concerned with topoi enkomiastikoi or loca laudis vel vituperationis (introduction, origin, birth, appearance, education, habits, deeds, death, time after the death, comparison, epilogue) and their presence in praises composed by Cosmas of Prague. For each encomiastic passage there is a commentary given and, in most cases, also evidence from Cosmas' work. |
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