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A HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF RHETORIC Gert Üding (ed.), Historisches Wörterbuch der Rhetorik. Vol. I: A-Bib.. Pp. viii + 1592. ISBN 3-484-68101-2. DM 248.00. Vol. II: Bie-Eul. Pp. vi + 1590. ISBN 3-48468102-0. DM 248.00. Vol. III: Eup.-Hor. Pp. í + 1610. ISBN 3-484-68103-9. Max Niemeyr Verlag, Tubingen, 1992-96. DM 248.00.
There can be no doubt that the new interest in rhetoric, which has brought into existence so many learned publications during the present decade,1 makes this lexicon a most welcome tool for further research. It not only provides classical scholars with detailed information on all the rhetorical terms but it also opens up for them a broad range of related aspects, explaining a number of different facets of the subject in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and modern times, including subjects like 'radio', 'film', 'Diskurs' and 'Demagogie'. The entries vary widely: right in between 'Charisma' and 'Chiffre' we find 'Chiasm'; between 'Feldherrnrede' and 'Festrede' appears 'feministische Rhetorik'. In fact, the editor enumerates in his preface (p. vif.) almost a dozen fields that are brought here together for interdisciplinary work.2
A tool ought to be handy, efficient and easy to operate. This series is planned to cover no fewer than ten volumes, and if it cannot therefore be physically easy to handle, its lucidity nevertheless will be helpful to the reader. Indeed, the editor and his crew of four sub-editors (Gregor Kalivoda, Heike Mayer, Franz-Hubert Robling and Thomas Zinsmaier) have gone out of their way to ensure perspicuity. A board of eleven experts at the head of an international team of more than 300 scholars (including Umberto Eco, who contributed 'Geheimsprache', that is, 'secret language'), have created an impressive 4,800 columns of admirably enlightening articles in the first three volumes.
There are three overall categories of articles: those that give concise definitions, those that are longer and more substantive, and those that focus on research. Internally, they are organised under the headings of (A) Definition and (B) History, followed by the sub-headings (a) Annotations, (b) Bibliography and (c) References to pertinent lemmata. There are corrigenda at the end of each of the volumes, lists of abbreviations and the like.3 A very helpful appendix to each volume is the 'Artikelverzeichnis' in which one can check the...