Cicero – the teacher of the Silesian youth. Didacticism in rhetoric, that is application of the Ciceronian rhetoric on the example of the Silesian humanistic gymnasia from 16th to 18th centuries

The article contains a description of the Ciceronian rhetoric didactics in the Silesian humanistic gymnasia from the 16th to the 18th century. In her article, the author intends to analyze how the educators of the old Silesia cultivated the ancient Ciceronian tradition of eloquence. She observes that Cicero’s authority was never questioned in Silesia despite the European echoes of the ‘dispute about Ciceronianism’, which reached Silesia as well. This and other issues from the area of rhetoric and didactics, on the example of Cicero's works and their reception in Silesia, are the concerns of this paper.Cicero’s authority as an educator as well as the independence of rhetoric and didactics were already respected by his contemporaries. The ancient Ciceronian eloquence tradition was cultivated in Silesia with diligence. Cicero’s unanimous recognition as a didactic authority in the writings of the former Silesian humanists appeased the so called ‘disputes over Ciceronianism’ in relation to the special role Cicero played as a literature model and legislator, which were an important indicator of the change in literature and culture. Preserved until these days in Catholic as well as Protestant schools, numerous texts of Ciceronian imitations such as ‘performances-shows’ using imitatively and creatively Cicero’s literary achievements are an evidence of the above. Showing an interest in practical, as well as didactic, application of rhetoric in real life, works of Bartłomiej Keckermann popular in Silesia certainly have also influenced the special presence of Cicero in the Silesian humanistic gymnasium. Moreover, the Silesian handwritten rhetoric of Nepomucen Horth, written after 1740 (defined by the author as a date of ending the argument between the ‘Ciceronians’ and ‘Anti-Ciceronians’), indicates the constant interest in didacticism of the Ciceronian prose. Meanwhile, at that time in Europe different, that is national patterns were more often chosen. Cicero – the teacher has never stopped being present in Silesian schools. Also nowadays, he is eagerly included in the Latin teaching and rhetoric syllabi as well as chosen for translations by the students themselves. Is it because didacticism of the Ciceronian prose has been for centuries perceived as subtle and balanced (as opposed to e.g. Seneca’s didacticism), being an outcome of the masterly connected 3 basic rhetorical principles docere, delectare, movere