The Most Pleasant Theatre... Rhetoric of the Theatre Poster in the Seventeenth Century

Based on a survey of forty-five items surviving from the French 17th century, this article aims to study the promotional strategies employed in theatre posters of the era. Transcending the classical rhetorical tradition in which it they have their origins, these employ devices specific to cultural advertising to establish, through writing, a privileged link between the troupe and its potential spectators.