Struttura epistolare di alcune lettere di Stato di Coluccio Salutati

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the structure and construction of some state letters written in 1375 by the Florentine chancellor Coluccio Salutati, with a brief reference to their content. I examine whether the theme and type of the letter affect the internal structure of the letter and, if so, to what extent and in what way. The classical structure of the letter – salutatio, captatio benevolentiae, narratio, petitio, and conclusio – was generally reduced to three parts in medieval missilis practice. At the time of Salutati this process had not yet ended, so sometimes the classic parts are confused with each other, but it is not rare to find units well separated in the letters. I examined these units in my corpus, which contains twenty-five letters written in Latin.