Epistolari, manuali di ‘ars dictandi’ e raccolte di lettere-modello nella biblioteca personale di Leonardo da Vinci

In various lists of the books owned by Leonardo da Vinci, the artist notes the titles
of several manuals of ars dictandi. The surviving epistolary documents which can
be attributed to him – an original letter, not however in his own hand, and several
copies – do not allow us to assess to what degree Leonardo used these manuals in
writing his own correspondence. As a whole, though, the manuals would seem to
constitute a coherent collection which might indicate the existence of a rationally
organised plan to acquire proficiency in this skill. The article attempts to describe
this ‘macrotext’, starting with a description of the treatises mentioned by Leonardo
and including an analysis of the role they played in the development of epistolary
skills generally. On the basis of this reconstruction the article hypothetically
outlines the criteria which might have guided Leonardo in choosing certain texts
from the diverse range of manuals in this field which were then available.