Logic: The Concept of the Baroque

By presenting a new etymological history of the word, the chapter aims to clarify the concept of the baroque. Contrary to popular belief, the word baroque comes from the name for a Scholastic syllogism – Baroco. As the chapter shows, the term was part of a mnemonic poem designed to help students of logic remember their syllogisms. Unlike other syllogisms, Baroco was infamous for leading to confusions in logic for which the only solution was a method called reductio ad absurdum. The complexity of this logic made Baroco a leading target for Renaissance humanists like Desiderius Erasmus and Michel de Montaigne, who pointed to the syllogism as emblematic of the excesses of Scholasticism. As time passed, Baroco and its derived adjective baroque came to name similar expressions of excess in aesthetics. This etymological history is important not only for philological reasons but also for our conceptual understanding of the baroque across fields of study. By resituating the baroque back within the history and reception of Baroco, the first chapter unites disparate and seemingly contradictory approaches to the style, explains the consistency of the baroque as a concept and demonstrates the relevance of logic to the history of aesthetics.