Rhetoric and the Writing of History in Early Modern Europe: Melo’s Guerra de Cataluña and Mascardi’s Ars historica

Abstract

In 1645 the Portuguese historian Francisco Manuel de Melo published the Historia de los movimientos, separación y guerra de Cataluña, an account of the so-called ‘Rebellion of Catalonia’ against the Spanish monarch Philip IV. Although the accuracy of the book has been the subject of controversy, very little has been said about its discursive strategies, in spite of its having been considered ‘an exceptional work’ (Menéndez y Pelayo 1893) and ‘full of perfections’ (Rosell 1852) in terms of its elocutio. The aim of this paper is to analyze the historiographical strategies that govern the construction of the Historia, in an attempt to place the early modern writing of history within a tradition that goes back to the ancient rhetoricians. In the particular case of Melo, the most immediate reference is that of the Dell’arte istorica (1639), a treatise by the Italian Jesuit Agostino Mascardi, specifically mentioned and praised by Melo.