''Ars dictaminis'' (or ''ars dictandi'') is the art of letter-writing, which often intersects with the art of
rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...
.
History of letter-writing
Greco-Roman theory
Early examples of letter-writing theory can be found in
C. Julius Victor's ''Ars rhetorica'' and
Cassiodorus Senator's ''Variae epistolae.''
Other examples can be found in the Pseudo-Demetrius' ''Typoi epistolikoi,'' Pseudo-Libanius' ''Epistolimaioi kharacteres,''
Demetrius
Demetrius is the Latinization of names, Latinized form of the Ancient Greek male name, male Greek given names, given name ''Dēmḗtrios'' (), meaning "devoted to goddess Demeter".
Alternate forms include Demetrios, Dimitrios, Dimitris, Dmytro, ...
' ''Peri hermeneias,''
Philostratus of Lemnos' treatise, and
Gregory of Nazianus' ''Epistle 51.''
Latin Middle Ages
During the Latin medieval period, the standing assumption was that these writings would be composed in
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
, and according to well worked-out models. This made the arts of composition a subfield of
rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...
.
Medieval letter writing developed for ecclesiastical, government, and business purposes.
Important figures in the early development of Latin letter writing and document composition include
Alberic of Monte Cassino (''Dictaminum radii, Breviarium''), his critic
Adalbert of Samaria (''Praecepta dictaminum'', c. 1120),
Hugh of Bologna (''Rationes dictandi prosaice,'' c.1120),
Bernard of Bologna's ''Introductiones prosaici dictaminis'' (1145) and Baldwin (''Liber de dictaminibus'', c.1150).
Early anonymous works include ''Aurea gemma'' (c.1119), ''Rationes dictandi'' (1135), ''Precepta prosaici dictaminis secundum Tullium'' (c. 1140) and ''Ad plenam scientiam dictaminum'' (c.1140).
Guido Faba (''Summa dictaminis'', c.1228),
Lawrence of Aquilegia (''Practica sive usus dictaminis'', c.1300) and
Quichilino da Spello (''Pomerium rethorice'', 1304) are later representatives of the genre.
Letter conventions include some form of address (e.g., “Worshipful master”); salutation (“I greet you well”); notification (“May it please you to know”); exposition (“the wool was shipped”); disposition (“and I want my money”); and valediction (“May God keep you well, at least until my bill is paid”). Clerks and scribes wrote the letters based on those rules.
Early Modern Europe
Renaissance letter writing, inspired by the rediscovery of Cicero's letters, broaden the scope of letter writing instruction.
See also
*
Formulary (model documents)
*
Victorian letter writing guides
*''
De conscribendis epistolis''
References
Further reading
*Martin Camargo: ''Ars dictaminis, Ars dictandi''. Turnhout: Brepols, 1991 (Typologie des sources du Moyen Âge occidental 60).
*Martin Camargo: "Ars dictandi, dictaminis." In: ''Historisches Wörterbuch der Rhetorik'' I, Tübingen 1992, Sp. 1040–1046.
*Janet Luehring and Richard Utz: "Letter Writing in the Late Middle Ages. An Introductory Bibliography of Critical Studies." In: Carol Poster and Richard Utz, eds., ''The Late Medieval Epistle''. Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP, 1996. pp. 191–221.
*Florian Hartman, Benoît Grèvin: "Ars dictaminis : Handbuch der mittelalterlichen Briefstillehre". Hiersemann, 2019, Sp. 720.
External links
* {{in lang, de}
Timeline of the ''ars dictandi''Makdisi - Scholasticism and Humanism in Classical Islam and the Christian West - page 7
Rhetoric
Letters (message)