f “La abbreviatio y sus funciones poéticas en el Libro de Alexandre

Although critics have given great importance to amplificatio in the writing of the Libro de Alexandre, its opposite abbreviatio is another crucial technique in the poem. Ancient rhetoric put emphasis on the value of brevitas in the treatment of material of great length, as a way to play down or hide long-windedness. In the Alexandre this strategy can be seen in the topoi of the inventio, as well as in structural devices of dispositio and the elocutio of the discourse.