The praise of the humanities : de ratione studii of Stanislaus Sokołowski

The main purpose of the paper is to provide a bilingual (Latin - English) edition of a brief essay De ratione studii (On the Programme of Studies) by Stanislaus Sokołowski (1537-1593), a professor of rhetoric at the Academy of Cracow and a royal preacher at Stephen Báthory’s court. A short introduction examines the rhetorical strategies used by the author in the description of “good letters” (bonae litterae) and “more humane studies” (humaniora). It also considers the place of rhetoric in humanist studies. Sokołowski and many Renaissance authors of educational treatises combined studies in three verbal arts (artes sermocinales: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic) with aspirations to moral excellence (virtue). In this way, the praise of “good letters” turns out to be the praise of man. The transcription, translation, and some notes on the text are presented in the second part of this paper