ARS DICTANDI. - The art of composing letters and documents, known since antiquity, was particularly taught in theoretical-practical treatises that flourished in large numbers in the 12th and 13th centuries, exerting a decisive influence on the formation of the epistolary style of the time and on the development of the notarial art.

The first expounder of its precepts, rhetorical in nature as regards form and juridical as regards content, was Alberic of Monte Cassino, who, having lived in that monastery between 1057 and 1086 in the splendid times of Abbot Desiderius, gathered the fruit of his oral teaching in his works Breviarium de dictamine and Flores rethorici. He was followed, among the principal ones, by Hugh of Bologna with his Rationes dictandi prosaica (ca. 1124), by Alberto de Morra, pontifical chancellor and later Pope (Gregory VIII, in 1187), who wrote a Forma dictandi for the use of the notaries of the Holy See, by the Florentine Buoncompagno da Signa, the greatest among the dictatores (among his many works the most important is the Rethorica antiqua, of 1215), by the Bolognese Guido Fava with the Summa dictaminis and the Dictamina (1229), and by the pontifical notary Tommaso da Capua, later cardinal in 1215 (Summa dictaminis).

Common to all these compositions is their practical character, whereby the theoretical treatment is followed by examples of immediate relevance, which entirely replaced the ancient arid formularies, no longer suited to the changed cultural and juridical conditions.

The new doctrine immediately enjoyed a wide diffusion in the chanceries and schools of every country. Applied particularly to notarial practice it was called ars notaria; the fundamental work in this field was the Summa artis notariae of Rolandino de' Passeggieri (1256), which dominated for a long time and was expanded and commented upon by many.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: L. Rockinger, Briefsteller und Formelbücher des XI. bis XIV. Jahrhunderts, Munich 1863 (collection of texts, still today the best); Ch. V. Langlois, Formulaires de lettres du XIIe, du XIIIe et du XIVe siècle, Paris 1890-98; E. Roncagli, Rolandino Passeggieri, in Atti d. Deputaz. di storia patria d. Romagna, 4th series, 4 (1894); A. Gaudenzi, Sulla cronologia delle opere dei dettatori bolognesi, in Bullett. dell'it. stor. ital., 14 (1895). - For the bibliography in general v. H. Breslau, Handbuch der Urkundenlehre für Deutschland und Italien, II, 2nd ed., Leipzig 1915, pp. 248-271; E. Besta, Storia del Diritto italiano, I, Milan 1923, p. 259 ff.; A. Solmi, St. del Diritto italiano, 3rd ed., ibid. 1930, especially § 90.

Giulio Battelli

@incollection{ec2_ars_dictandi, author = {Battelli, Giulio}, title = {Ars Dictandi}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {26}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ars-dictandi} }

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