As a special class of speeches we may mention the address made in
Italian on the battlefield, either before or after the combat. Federigo
of Urbino was esteemed a classic in this style; he used to pass round
among his squadrons as they stood drawn up in order of battle,
inspiring them in turn with pride and enthusiasm. Many of the speeches
in the military historians of the fifteenth century, as for instance in
Porcellius, may be, in part at least, imaginary, but may be also in
part faithful representations of words actually spoken. The addresses
again which were delivered to the Florentine Militia, organized in 1506
chiefly through the influence of Machiavelli, and which were spoken
first at reviews, and afterwards at special annual festivals, were of
another kind. They were simply general appeals to the patriotism of the
hearers, and were addressed to the assembled troops in the church of
each quarter of the city by a citizen in armor, sword in hand.
Finally, the oratory of the pulpit began in the fifteenth century to
lose its distinctive peculiarities. Many of the clergy had entered into
the circle of classical culture, and were ambitious of success in it.
The street-preacher Bernardino da Siena, who even in his lifetime
passed for a saint and who was worshipped by the populace, was not
above taking lessons in rhetoric from the famous Guarino, although he
had only to preach in Italian.
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