Author Description

Edward Meredith Cope (1818 1873) was an English scholar of classics who served as Fellow and Tutor at Trinity College, Cambridge. One of the leading Greek specialists of his time, Cope published An Introduction to Aristotle's Rhetoric in 1867. Though now considered a 'standard work', that Introduction was intended as merely the first part of a full critical edition of the Rhetoric, which was left incomplete on Cope's death in 1873. Cope's manuscripts were collected and edited by John Edwin Sandys, and published in this three-volume set in 1877. This major work contains the Greek text together with a commentary on Aristotle's understanding of rhetoric, including its definition and classification, the role of emotion and logic, and the relevance of style and other rhetorical techniques. Cope's analysis represented an important advance in the modern interpretation of this foundational text on the art of persuasion."