The literary genre Inscriptio arguta , which originated in the Baroque age, combines both metrical and prose elements. Its characteristics are centre-axis layout, argute diction, and presentation in both printed and unprinted form. The main focus here is on rhetorical and poetological theory-formation and the reception of the genre in German literature (notably Masen, Tesauro, Harsdörffer, Birken, Weise, Morhof). By the early 18th century the Inscriptio arguta started to wane as a genre, its eventual demise being brought about by criticism of the Argutia movement and changing relations between script and scholarship in the early Enlightenment.