Cypriano Soarez y Herrera, S.J. (1524–1593) was a sixteenth-centurySpanishJesuit who wroteDe Arte Rhetorica, the first Jesuit rhetoric textbook.[1]
Soarez was born inOcaña in theKingdom of Toledo.[1] His mother was Lady Francesca de Hererra and Soarez hadconverso heritage.[1] He joined theJesuit order in Portugal on September 21, 1549, with the support ofFray Luis de Granada.[1] He taught rhetoric in Jesuit schools, including the College of Saint Anthony in Lisbon and the Royal College of Coimbra.[1] In Coimbra, he also served as a cook, porter, and sweeper.[1] Emmanuel Alvarez, who would later write the first Jesuit Latin grammar handbook (De institutio grammatica libri tres), also worked with Soarez.[1] He attained the office of Prefect of Studies in the College of Arts.[1] Later, he attained the degree ofdoctor of theology at the Jesuit College of Evora, and became rector in the College of Braga.[1] In 1580, he moved toCastile.[1] WithFrancisco Suarez, Soarez was appointed to the committee to offer feedback on the Society's developingRatio studiorum.[1] He later died in Placentia.[1]
Concerned that young students in Jesuit colleges were not ready for major rhetorical texts such asAristotle'sRhetoric,Cicero'sDe Oratore, andQuintilian'sInstitutio Oratoria, Soarez wroteDe arte rhetorica as digest of their work as an introduction for students still learning Latin.[1]
Soarez wrote the first draft of the work around 1562; it was revised by fellow JesuitPedro Juan Pepinyá in about 1565.[1]
TheDe arte rhetorica (1568) was organized in Aristotelian form but borrowed its content heavily from Cicero.[2][3] Soarez intended theDe arterhetorica as an introductory digest that would introduce students to the principles of rhetoric and oratory; though students had learned Latin grammar, he found that they were not guaranteed to have facility reading “Quintilian, Cicero, Virgil, Sallust, and the other authors."[4] TheDe arte rhetorica went through more than 75 printings from 1460 to 1700.[5] This included printings in Mexico City.[6] The JesuitRatio Studiorum marked Soarez'De arte rhetorica the required rhetoric handbook in the second semester of the Humanities course for students at Jesuit colleges all over the world.[7]
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