Introduction

Summary

The Introduction opens with a "job talk" by Cayetano de Cabrera y Quintero for the chair of rhetoric at the Royal and Pontifical University in Mexico City. Cabrera's argument that eloquence is "the life blood of cities" then serves as a way to introduce the main argument of the book, namely that the classical rhetorical tradition contributed to the ideological coherence and equilibrium of the early modern Iberian World, providing important occasions for persuasion, legitimation and eventual (and perhaps inevitable) confrontation. The Introduction also provides an overview of the history of the classical rhetorical tradition from antiquity to the Renaissance revival of letters and outlines the meta-geographical framework employed in the book, namely that of the Iberian World as an alternative to national, national-imperial and regional studies frameworks. It concludes with brief outlines of the book’s six chapters.