La ‘lettera di artisti’. Problemi (e alcune soluzioni) per la definizione di una tipologia epistolare

The ‘artists’ letter’. Problems (and some solutions) for the definition of an epistolary typology · Past and on-going European projects have considerably changed our perception of the phenomenon of the writing and circulation of epistolary documents in the modern age – a much more extensive, ramified and complex phenomenon than we thought until a few decades ago. After a first phase of data collection, in which macroscopic analyses were carried on, the time has now come to deal with more specific issues. Particularly interesting is the question concerning the features of the artists’ letter. Among the defining elements of the ‘artistic’ character of an epistolary document are graphic, pragmatic and rhetorical aspects (e.g. the typology of the request/supplication) and a common lexical background. However, despite the widespread agreement that such letters belong to a specific typology, it is not easy to define the traits and characteristics that unite them, and at the same time separate them from epistolary documents of other varieties of writers.