Richard Rainolde's recognized contribution to rhetoric is his treatise A booke called the Foundacion of Rhetorike, because all other partes of Rhetorike are grounded thereupon (1563), the first English handbook to teach composition through formulaic speech genres. The treatise, whose explanations basically conform to a contemporaneous Latin translation of Aphthonius's Greek Progymnasmata, provides valuable insight into the ways in which Tudor writers adapted the richness of classical oratory to the exigencies of English culture. It especially provides insight into the role rhetoric played in fashioning the English courtier, in guiding the English poet, and in constructing the English commonwealth.

Little biographical information on Richard Rainolde (also known as Reynolds in the Short Title Catalogue and the Library of Congress catalogue) is extant. He was born in Essex County, probably around 1530, but his exact birth date and birthplace are not known. Records from his days at Cambridge University are relatively...