Francesco Robortello on Topics

This article focuses on a neglected aspect of Francesco Robortello’s work, that is his conception of Topics. The scope of the reconstruction is not only erudite: The reason for investigating Robortello’s idea of Topics is that for him, as for many other Renaissance philosophers, there was a strict relationship between Topics and the other sermocinal arts, that is grammar, rhetoric, poetry, and sometimes, in the period in question, also historiography, and it is the claim of this article that it is impossible to understand the latter if not in relation to the former, because the Topics lay at the foundation of every possible way of reasoning and argument. In particular, the paper shall examine the vernacular manuscript entitled the Discorso dell’origine, numero, ordine et methodo delli luoghi topici, the transcription of which is included in the appendix.