May my lord fare well, and upon the proscripts of Christ may he have mercy. For I am interceding in the name of all my fellows in exile; and if I fail of my consolation, none the less I shall hold myself paid by whatever I know the other proscripts of Christ to have through your offices. _Ep._ 221; PL 199: 247.[4] Medieval letters, long studied for history, should be better known as literature. Less available, though for our purposes more directly important, are the manuals. Called generically _ars dictaminis_ (or _dictandi_), or _summa dictaminis_, they are sometimes brief introductions to the formularies, sometimes substantial and detailed separate works. The latter have much less often than the formularies been printed. The ampler manuals apply to letter-writing a review of both grammar and rhetoric. This is instructive in Conrad’s _Summa de arte prosandi_.[5] The _Boncompagnus_,[6] so widely used that Boncompagno’s name, like Donatus, became a common noun, is amplified rather by diffuseness and by abundance of specimens. The _Rhetorica novissima_[7] of the same author is at once over-divided and ill-digested. Equally diffuse and equally relying on specimens, it appeals to students of law by deliberate and often inept variations from the traditional lore of rhetoric. The vogue of Thomas of Capua is hardly explained by the meager printed text of his _Dictator_.[8] None of these is at once so ample and so specific as a work by a Florentine of the Bolognese school, perhaps Bene of Florence, entitled _Candelabrum_.[9] A. THE RHETORIC OF _DICTAMEN_ The international affairs of the Roman Curia demanded and developed professional _notarii_.[10] Their first and abiding concern was precision. Legal correctness of language, exactitude, systematic verification and record, precaution against tampering and forgery, all demanded an elaborate technical skill. This was _ars notaria_ in the stricter sense, an important branch of the practise of law, especially of canon law.[11] Beyond legal correctness and dignity it developed style befitting Rome. Privileges,[12] decrees, mandates, dispensations, commissions, and other forms observed exact appropriateness and rhythms that were at once marks of authenticity and models. The same care extended to diplomatic correspondence. The documents in both fields, a mine for students of medieval history, amply attest the importance of _dictamen_ as a profession.[13]