Resumen de Observations littéraires sur la préface du livre I des 'Euporista' de Théodore Priscien
This preface takes the form of criticism of erudition, and more specifically a criticism of rhetoric in medicine, in the name of nature and efficiency. However, the text is not devoid of ambiguousness. In truth, both in his inveighing against physicians - which constitutes full-scale satire - and in the prosopopeia of Nature, in accents reminiscent of Lucretius, Theodorus Priscianus writes in an elaborate, involute, indeed rhetorical style that is quite inconsistent with the simplicity he advocates. In order to account for such a contradiction, one must consider the author's objectives. Firstly, Priscianus's use of rhetoric partakes in the strategy of seduction that aims at persuading the reader instead of merely convincing him. Secondly, the use of rhetoric provides Priscianus with the opportunity of displaying to the full his gift as a literary writer.
