Humanistic Rhetorical Theory and Chancery Documents: on the Collections of "Exempla Exordiorum" of Bartolomeo Miniatore (intervention in the panel: "Statecraft and Paperwork")

The Formulario di epistole missive e responsive is a popular collection of exordia models for epistles and orations in Italian vernacular, dedicated to Ercole I d’Este, composed by Bartolomeo Miniatore da Ferrara (princeps 1485). Besides the incunabulum, five other handwritten redactions of the Formulario were conserved, two of which, dating back to circa 1465, dedicated to important political figures; an anonymous Bolognese senator (Vatican City, ms. Reg. Lat. 1398) and the other, to the lord of Faenza Astorre Manfredi (Boulogne, Biblioteca Universitaria, ms. 226). The numerous models intended for chancery and politico-diplomatic praxis transmitted by these manuscripts seem to testify that to what extent the use of the vernacular in public documents, characterizing that century, correspond the need for their rhetorical standardization. The present contribution aims to propose a detailed description of these collections by offering a typological and rhetorical analysis of the models they contain.