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It is well-known among historians that rhetoric was at the centre of the studia humaniora in the Italian Renaissance and an important part of education in those times. In this essay the author draws attention to three short tracts discussing the merits of rhetoric from various points of view. Ognibene da Lonigo claims in Oratio de laudibus eloquentiae (1485) that rhetoric is absolutely indispensable in all fields of human life. In Filippo Beroaldo's Declamatio philosophi, medici et oratoris de excellentia disceptantium (1497), the orator gains the victory over his rivals. Both these writers argue mainly by citing 'authorities'. In his Dialogus de eloquentia (set down before 1555), Marcantonio Maioragio tries to argue by rational argument for the higher value of the studia humaniora over an exclusively Christian education. None of the three authors achieves more than plausibility for his claim. The echo of Cicero's philosophical and rhetorical works is clearly perceptible in all of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]