0 INTRODUCTION

4. RHETORIC AND THE WORLD OF SCIENCE IN THE EModE PERIOD
vernacular in their medical writings; those who did so insisted on the fact that “public
good transcends private gain” and also pointed out that ancient physicians used their
mother tongue in their writings (Jones 1953: 50; Bennett 1970: 140). Furthermore, those
in favour of using English in academic writing posed the argument that the worth of a
language was somehow measured by the amount of knowledge written in it. In this sense,
the more original English writings and translations into the vernacular, the more valuable
as a language English would become (Jones 1953: 51).
To summarize, the process of vernacularization of science could not be stopped
despite the opposition of some of the learned ranks of society, who were moved mostly
by selfish reasons.
4.4. Literacy in the EModE period
In order to understand the situation of science in the EModE period, it is also essential to
clarify who were the recipients of that knowledge. Thus, this section deals with the topic
of literacy and tries to clarify key concepts such as “audience,” “readership” and
“discourse community.”
4.4.1. The spread of literacy
The degree of literacy in the EModE period is an issue of great debate among historians
(Marttila 2011: 138). As P. M. Jones (2011: 30) has claimed, it is impossible to measure
literacy statistically, since the ability to read leaves no traces for historians to measure.
This is the reason why writing, or more specifically the ability to sign, is sometimes used
as a measure. Using signing as a measure, results are that in EModE times 70% of adult
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