De Inventione is a handbook fororators thatCicero composed when he was still a young man.Quintilian tells us that Cicero considered the work rendered obsolete by his later writings.[1] Despite Cicero’s original plan to cover all five components of Rhetoric, the final work only deals with the first component, Invention. It is also credited with the first recorded use of the term "liberal arts" orartes liberales, though whether Cicero coined the term is unclear.[2][3] The text also defines the concept ofdignitas:dignitas est alicuius honesta et cultu et honore et verecundia digna auctoritas (Dignity is honorable prestige. It merits respect, honour, and reverence.).[4]
In his writingDe Inventione, Cicero explained the five canons or tenets of rhetoric. The five canons apply to rhetoric and public speaking. The five canons are invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.[6]
^Jonathan Rubin (2018), "John of Antioch and the Perceptions of Language and Translation in Thirteenth-Century Acre", in John France (ed.),Acre and Its Falls: Studies in the History of a Crusader City, Brill, pp. 90–104.
^"The Five Canons of Rhetoric"(PDF).University of Arkansas Sam M. Walton College of Business. 2024-10-15. Retrieved2024-10-15.
