The course aims to investigate and highlight the links between the rhetorical tradition and literary production during the Ancien Régime, through the case study of the novel genre. The course aims to provide students with some historical reference points and the philological, stylistic, rhetorical and hermeneutic tools to read and appreciate Early Modern texts. Through an literary and philologiacl approach to the the text, students will develop critical skills and the ability to work autonomously on texts from the 17th and 18th centuries, also learning to master the tools of the discipline and to find, select and use the secondary bibliography in the most effective way. The course will therefore provide students not only with theoretical knowledge but also with the hermeneutic tools to understand the texts addressed (1: knowledge and understanding, and 2: applying knowledge and understanding) and the expressive ones to form, nourish, nuance and discuss their judgment on questions of literary history through a meticulous reading of the texts (3: making judgements), as well as to communicate clearly and effectively on these themes in front of a heterogeneous audience (4: communication skills) and extend the reflection in a autonomous through the acquisition of the skills that will allow them to undertake the subsequent course of study (5: learning skills).