“Loci Extrinsec” in Kyiv-Mohyla Courses of Rhetoric and Their European Sources

The impressive erudition of Baroque authors was often based not on extensive reading but rather on the use of specialized auxiliary sources. The educational practices of the time encouraged this habit. Since rhetoric was a discipline that involved a very practical application of knowledge, the authors of rhetorical courses often minimized theoretical content and gave considerable space to the so-called “external places” (loci extrinseci). These, among others, included pieces of erudition, maxims, fragments, emblems, symbols, and “hieroglyphs.” Responding to the needs of schools and practicing orators, the European book market offered a wide selection of relevant sources, which authors of rhetorical textbooks and teachers abundantly used. The professors of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy were no exception. Most lecturers provided students with a substantial amount of “semi-processed” material, so that the owner of the recorded lectures could always quickly compose/compile an oration suited to any typical life situation. Depending on the user, this material could serve as a shortcut to avoid the effort of thinking, or, conversely, act as a stimulus for creative thought, generating new and refined contexts.