(1600–14) by the naturalism of CARAVAGGIO, he soon de-
veloped his own style in the Renaissance tradition of
RAPHAEL. His classicism is evident in his two best-known
works: Aurora, a fresco painted for the Casino Rospigliosi
in Rome (1613), and The Massacre of the Innocents (1611;
Pinacoteca, Bologna). His religious compositions brought
him great popularity during his own lifetime among the
fashionable circles of Rome and Bologna, but were later
criticized by John Ruskin for their sentimentality, causing
a sharp fall in his reputation in the 19th century. His style,
particularly latterly, was noted for its simple sketchlike de-
signs, pale colors, and soft outlines. He also painted por-
traits and mythological subjects, among the latter the
Naples Atalanta and Hippomenes and the Munich Apollo
and Marsyas.
Reuchlin, Johann (Capnion) (1455–1522) German
humanist scholar
Reuchlin was born at Pforzheim and educated at Fribourg
and Paris, where he began to study Greek. After periods in
Basle and Orléans, he joined the entourage of Eberhardt,
Count of Württemberg, with whom he traveled to Italy
(1482). There he completed his Greek studies with John
ARGYROPOULOS. On his second visit to Italy (1490), he met
PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA, who introduced him to Jewish
mystical literature. From 1492, with the help of the Jew-
ish physician Jacob Loans, he mastered Hebrew and began
to study the CABBALA, on which he published De verbo
mirifico in 1494. His pro-Jewish sympathies brought him
into conflict with the bigoted Jewish convert Johann Pfef-
ferkorn (1468/9–1522), who advocated such antisemitic
measures as the destruction of Hebrew books. The result-
ing controversy (see EPISTOLAE OBSCURORUM VIRORUM) in-
volved nearly all the northern humanists, becoming a war
between Renaissance intellectual inquiry and ecclesiasti-
cal authoritarianism. Reuchlin’s Latin comedy Sergius
(1496) is a devastating satire on the monkish obscuran-
tists. After years of virulent controversy, the case against
Reuchlin was referred to Pope LEO X, who quashed it
(1516). Reuchlin spent his last years quietly teaching and
studying in Ingolstadt and Tübingen. De arte cabalistica
appeared in 1517 and the following year MELANCHTHON
published Reuchlin’s advocacy of the manner of pro-
nouncing Greek used by contemporary Greeks (against
the supposed “ancient” pronunciation advocated by ERAS-
MUS). However, perhaps the most important of all his
works was his Hebrew grammar and lexicon, De rudimen-
tis hebraicis (1506), which laid the foundations of Hebrew
scholarship for later humanists.
Rhenanus, Beatus (1485–1547) German humanist
scholar
Rhenanus studied in Paris (1503–07) and from 1511 stud-
ied Greek in Basle under Johann Cuno, becoming attached
to the circle of scholars around Johann FROBEN, for whose
press he edited classical and patristic texts. In 1526 he re-
turned to his native Schlettstadt (now Sélestat in Alsace).
His Rerum germanici libri tres (1531) was a significant con-
tribution to German historical research. A disciple and
friend of ERASMUS, he published the first collected edition
of the latter’s works, in nine volumes (1540–41), includ-
ing Rhenanus’s life of the great humanist. Rhenanus’s fine
library was bequeathed to his native town, where it re-
mains.Rheticus (Georg Joachim von Lauchen) (1514–1576)
Austrian astronomer and mathematician
Born at Feldkirch, he called himself after his native region
of Rhaetia. The son of a physician beheaded for sorcery in
1528, Rheticus was appointed (1536) to teach mathemat-
ics at Wittenberg university. In 1539 he visited COPERNI-
CUSin Frauenburg and thereafter, as an ardent disciple,
strove to both publicize and publish his work. To this end
he published the first account of the Copernican system in
his Narratio prima (1540). Subsequently he persuaded
Copernicus to allow him to publish his long since com-
pleted De revolutionibus. Academic duties, however, forced
Rheticus to leave the task to others, and in 1542 he be-
came professor of mathematics at Leipzig university.
Forced to resign in 1551 as a result of a sexual scandal,
Rheticus spent the rest of his life practicing medicine in
Poland and Hungary. His Opus Palatinum de triangulis, a
comprehensive set of trigonometrical tables, appeared
posthumously in 1596.rhetoric One of the seven liberal arts taught in the Mid-
dle Ages and defined as the art of using language to per-
suade or influence others. In the medieval academic
scheme rhetoric was in the lower group, called the trivium,
which also included grammar and logic. During the Re-
naissance period, its importance increased, and it was rec-
ognized, with grammar, history, poetry, and morals, as one
of the studia humana (humane studies). The traditional
teaching of Aristotle, CICERO, and QUINTILIANwas modi-
fied by the influence of RAMUS; there was less connection
with logic and more importance was attached to elocu-
tion, pronunciation, and gesture. Figures of speech were
elaborated, but mere verbal decoration was to be avoided;
there was always a moral purpose, to unite an elegant
style with the promotion of virtue. The application of
rhetorical principles to works and speeches in the vernac-
ular languages was studied no less than traditional Latin
oratory.
In the 15th century Lorenzo VALLA, in his Dialecticae
disputationes and Elegantiae linguae Latinae, attacked the
received ideas and tried to reduce the number of tradi-
tional categories. A far more conservative treatise was The
Arte of Rhetorique (1553), by Thomas Wilson (c. 1525–
81), English secretary of state, who maintained the clas-
sical teaching of Aristotle and denounced the pedantryrrhheettoorriicc 4 41111