5 - Dilatatio: Methods of “Unfolding” a Sermon

Summary

After a preacher had made his threefold, fourfold, sevenfold, or ninefold division in a sermo modernus-style sermon, he then had to “dilate” each member of the division. In most cases, the division was chosen precisely because of the content the preacher wished to produce. There were specific methods that the preaching manuals of the day contained to teach prospective preachers how they might develop (“dilate”) the divisions within their sermon. In Chapter 5, “Dilatatio: Methods of ‘Unfolding’ a Sermon,” I show how Bonaventure used some of the common methods of dilatiatio to expand the divisions he employs in the Itinerarium into the discursive content of his text.