Geoffrey of Vinsauf’s Master Trope: The Development of the Doctrine of Transsumptio

Abstract

In this article, I trace the evolution of Geoffrey of Vinsauf’s doctrine of transsumptio as it developed from his Documentum de modo et arte dictandi et versificandi (late 12th century) to the Poetria nova (1202–1213). Although scholars have conflated transsumptio with translatio (or metaphor), this article argues that transsumptio is Geoffrey’s attempt to schematize how occupying a position of difference (or the transference of the self into an alternate mode of being) reveals metaphorical possibility in language. I close by imputing the development of Geoffrey’s doctrine of transsumptio to a reinvestigation of the Rhetorica ad Herennium between composing his two major treatises.