How to Craft a Treatise: The Rhetorica Monacensis as a Work in Progress

This paper investigates the compositional process of the so-called Rhetorica Monacensis, a still unedited Byzantine rhetorical treatise from the 14th century preserved in autograph form, and in multiple stages. In particular, we can now access a preliminary draft preserved in the manuscript Vat. gr. 1340, accompanied by informal and personal notes. This new document offers a rare glimpse into the authorial work: marginal annotations, technical glosses, and excerpts from Aristotle and Hermogenes gradually evolve into a structured theoretical framework. Through erasures, corrections, and additions, one can trace successive layers of redaction and the transformation from provisional notes into a coherent treatise. Comparison with the later version preserved in Munich (Cod. graec. 505) reveals further developments: reformulations, expansions, and editorial adjustments that shed light on the author’s ongoing work of revision. The Rhetorica Monacensis thus provides a privileged case for observing Byzantine authorship as a process in motion, where reading, excerpting, writing, rewriting, and reorganising leave visible marks in the manuscript itself.