Captatio benevolentiae

Captatio benevolentiae (Latin for "winning of goodwill") is a rhetorical technique aimed to capture the goodwill of the audience at the beginning of a speech or appeal. It was practiced by Roman orators, with Cicero considering it one of the pillars of oratory.

During the Middle Ages it was used in court cases to gain the judge's favor, with lavish praise of the judge's wisdom considered most effective by Guillaume Durand. In parallel, the techniques of the captatio benevolentiae began to be used in the prologues of chivalric romance novels, addressing the readers and trying to have them view the work favourably.