and discussion, the results of which did not reach England until almost a
hundred years later.

_The Poetics_ had been known to the middle ages only through a Latin
abridgment by Hermannus Allemanus. This was derived from a Hebrew
translation from the Arabic of Averroes, who, in turn, knew only a Syriac
translation of the Greek.[175] Although the _Poetics_ was not included in
the Aldine _Aristotle_ (1495-8), the Latin abstract by Hermannus was
printed with Alfarabi's commentary on the _Rhetoric_ for the first time at
Venice (1481). Valla published a Latin translation in 1498. The Greek text
was first published in the Aldine _Rhetores Graeci_ (1508)[176] badly
edited by Ducas. A Latin translation made by Pazzi in 1536 appears in the
Basel edition of Aristotle's _Opera_ (1538) with Filelfo's version of the
_Rhetorica ad Alexandrum_, falsely attributed to Aristotle, and George of
Trebizond's (Trapezuntius) translation of the _Rhetoric_. Robortelli
edited it in 1548. Segni translated it in 1549. It was edited again by
Maggi in 1550, by Vettori in 1560, by Castelvetro in 1570, and by
Piccolomini in 1575. It had inspired the _De Poeta_ (1559) of Minturno and
the _Poetics_ (1561) of Scaliger. But in England its critical theories
were ignored before Ascham, who cites them in the _Scholemaster_ (1570),
and never elucidated before Sidney's _Defense of Poesie_ (c. 1583, pub.
1595).

But with all the changes which were worked in the literary criticism of
the renaissance by the recovery of Aristotle's _Poetics_, renaissance
theories of poetry were nevertheless tinged with rhetoric. Vossler has
summarized renaissance theories of the nature of poetry as passing through
three stages: of theology, of oratory, and finally of rhetoric and
philology.[177] While the influence of Aristotle is most clearly seen in
the new emphasis on plot construction and characterization, the importance