Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of illustrations -- List of contributors -- Preface -- Note on spelling and references -- Introduction: the figures in Renaissance theory and practice -- RHETORIC AND LITERATURE -- THE FIGURES IN RHETORICAL THEORY -- THE FIGURES IN PRACTICE -- THE SCOPE AND ORGANISATION OF THIS VOLUME -- CHAPTER 1 -- Synonymia: or, in other words -- WHAT IS SYNONYMIA? -- SYNONYMIA AND THE MODERN READER -- THE PEDAGOGICS OF SYNONYMIA -- THE AESTHETICS OF SYNONYMIA -- CHAPTER 2 -- Compar or parison: measure for measure -- POETS AND CARPENTERS -- PARISONIC SOUNDS -- SIMILITUDE IN POETRY AND PROSE -- SYMPHONIE TO SYMMETRIE -- WORDS AND THINGS -- CHAPTER 3 -- Periodos: squaring the circle -- QUINTILIAN AND THE CLASSICAL PERIOD -- VIVES AND THE HUMANIST PERIOD -- PERIODOS AS A FIGURE OF ORDER IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY PROSE -- BACON AND THE COMPOSITION OF THE SENTENCE -- CIRCUIT AND APHORISM IN DONNE -- REVIVING VIVES: JONSON AND THE LATER SEVENTEENTH CENTURY -- CHAPTER 4 -- Puns: serious wordplay -- CHAPTER 5 -- Prosopopoeia: the speaking figure -- PROSOPOPOEIA IN RHETORICAL THEORY -- PROSOPOPOEIA IN RENAISSANCE PRACTICE -- BORROWED VOICES -- CONCLUSION -- CHAPTER 6 -- Ekphrasis: painting in words -- CHAPTER 7 -- Hysteron proteron: or the preposterous -- FROM HYSTERON PROTERON TO THE PREPOSTEROUS -- THE PREPOSTEROUS IN RELIGIOUS WRITING -- CHAPTER 8 -- Paradiastole: redescribing the vices as virtues -- CHAPTER 9 -- Syncrisis: the figure of contestation -- CHAPTER 10 -- Testimony: the artless proof -- THEORIES OF TESTIMONY -- PRESENTING TESTIMONY -- TESTIMONY AND ITS NEIGHBOURS -- TESTIMONY AND 'TRUE VALUE' -- THE FORTUNES OF TESTIMONY -- CHAPTER 11 -- Hyperbole: exceeding similitude -- PEACOCKS, FOOLS, AND THINGS IN BETWEEN -- VERSIONS OF THE SUBLIME -- POETIC LIARS AND VIRTUOUS TRUTHS.

CONCLUSION -- CHAPTER 12 -- Metalepsis: the boundaries of metaphor -- THE FIGURE IN THEORY -- METALEPSIS AND FAILURE -- ERASMUS'S THEORY OF FIGURATION IN DE COPIA -- RES AND VERBA -- CHAPTER 13 -- The vices of style -- PROBLEMS OF DEFINITION -- A CATALOGUE OF VICES -- SHIFTING VALUES -- SOME LITERARY APPLICATIONS -- CONCLUSION -- Notes -- Suggestions for further reading -- Index.