Chapter 31. The art of letter-writing

Abstract

This essay contains, in the first part, a chronological excursus (late 11th-late 13th century) dedicated to the ars dictandi, the medieval ars that teaches epistolography and the editing of prose texts; the most significant masters and the most important works are illustrated, from Alberico di Montecassino to Pier della Vigna and Tommaso di Capua. In the second part, on the basis of contemporary studies, a panorama of comparative research carried out or to be carried out on the materials of ars dictandi is traced; these researches demonstrate the richness of the epistolographic texts and the possibility of analysis from different perspectives, for example from the historical, sociological, juridical, documentary, rhetorical-literary, linguistic point of view and so on. The bibliography, necessarily selective, is however attentive to the new editiones principes and the most recent essays.