Inscriptio: Rhetorik und Poetik der Scharfsinnigen Inschrift im Zeitalter des Barock

The literary genre Inscriptio arguta, which originated in the Baroque age, combines both metrical and prose elements. Its characteristics are centre-axis layout, argute diction, and presentation in both printed and unprinted form. The main focus here is on rhetorical and poetological theory-formation and the reception of the genre in German literature (notably Masen, Tesauro, Harsdörffer, Birken, Weise, Morhof). By the early 18th century the Inscriptio arguta started to wane as a genre, its eventual demise being brought about by criticism of the Argutia movement and changing relations between script and scholarship in the early Enlightenment.