Medieval 'Artes Praedicandi': A Synthesis of Scholastic Sermon Structure

Between the early thirteenth and late fifteenth centuries, theologians and preachers in Western Europe adopted a distinct and rigidly structured sermon format. The scholastic sermon, as it was known, was taught through technical treatises known as artes praedicandi, of which approximately 230 survive.

A dense and complicated arrangement, modern scholars often find the scholastic sermon challenging to understand and interpret. In this concise text, Siegfried Wenzel focuses on the main feature...