The Relationship Between Rhetoric and Virtue in Bruni's Life

For Bruni, reading history offers the sort of experience naturally acquired by older people who have seen more of life than the young. His dual interests in rhetoric and virtue are on show in his Life of Cicero. We're told that Bruni boasted of giving Florence immortality by writing his history of the city. He also once commented that history is one thing, panogiric another. This gives us a hint of the close connection between rhetoric, offering praise of something or someone, and the kind of rhetoric involved in writing history.