The world of Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford (II) : On Elizabethan noble society and its heritage

"Underlying Ps.-Demetrius's* recommendation of friendly (letter-writing) style is a deeply ingrained, and thus unstated, cultural presumption that members of the educated elite, as lovers of the Greek paideia (literary culture), form a sort of brotherhood, even without individual acquaintanceship. Especially by the fourth century, both among pagan Hellenes and Christians, shared paideia--whether grounded in philosophy, sophistic, initiation into mysteries, or brotherhood in Christ--became a basis for a widespread network of affiliations and alliances underlying the conduct of professional, social, economic, and political activities. People who shared the same cultural heritage of paideia, whether personally acquainted or not, owed to each other all the obligations conveyed by the reciprocal notion of friendship. Equally important for understanding the importance of friendship in this discussion of elite professional letter writing is that such educated men as philosophers, grammarians, and sophists, when employed as secretaries, were described as friends ("philoi" in Greek, "amici" in Latin) rather than as salaried employees, which would have been insulting to well-born males. 13"

( from Carol Poster : "A Conversation Halved: Epistolary Theory in Greco-Roman Antquity" (p. 26) in Poster, Carol & Mitchell, Linda C. (eds.) Letter-Writing Manuals and Instruction from Antiquity to the Present Historical and Bibliographic Studies (2007) University of South Carolina Press. Part of the Studies in Rhetoric/Communication series)
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end-note (13): For ancient discussions of friendship, see especially Seneca's De benevolentia and Cicero's De amicitia. Secondary sources useful for friendship in relation to letter writing include Konstan, David (1997) Friendship in the Classical World (Cambridge University Press) and White, Caroline (1992) Christian friendship in the fourth century. (Cambridge University Press).

* RE: "Ps.-Demetrius" : "The treatise Typoi Epistolikoi is falsely attributed in the manuscript tradition to the Demetrius (presumed to be but not actually Demetrius of Phalerum) who authored De elocutione. To avoid having to refer to the author of De elocutione as pseudo-Demetrius and the author of Typoi Epistolikoi as pseudo-pseudo-Demetrius, it is easier within the context of epistolary theory to call the author of De elocutione, 'Demetrius' and the author of Typoi Epistolikoi ' 'pseudo-Demetrius.' " (p. 24, ibid.)

... "In the second part of the Companion to Neo-Latin Studies, Josef IJsewijn and Dirk Sacré rightly stress that letters constitute a most important and interesting part of Neo-Latin literature:

'Beginning with Petrarch almost all major humanists and many more recent authors left hundreds of letters and in some cases thousands of letters written in Latin (and sometimes in Greek). They cover all ranges of human relations...; some of the letter collections are fascinating mirrors of their age.' 1

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1) J. IJsewijn, with D. Sacré, Companion to Neo-Latin Studies, Part II: Literary, Linguistic, Philological and Editorial Questions. Second entirely rewritten edition, Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia, 14 (Leuven,: Lueven University Press, 1998), p. 218
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...

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Self-Presentation and Social Identification : The Rhetoric and pragmatics of letter-writing in Early Modern times, (2002) Leuven University Press; Toon Van Houdt, Jan Papy, Gilbert Tournoy & Constant Matheeussen, (eds.) (Toon Van Houdt and Jan Papy, Introduction, p. 1)

...

...

"At first glance, many, if not most, of the {early modern} correspondences seem to have functioned as a means to discuss business and family affairs, to express friendship (and, to a lesser extent, love), or to communicate scholarly information. If we scrutinize them more carefully, however, we will discover that epistolary exchange was far more significant and played a far more crucial role than this superficial enumeration of topics to be found in early modern correspondences would make us believe. It can indeed be argued that many humanists and other intellectuals wrote letters in order to define themselves as literators, scholars, or scientists. In other words, letters were used as a means of self-presentation and social-identification. It is through letters that literators. scholars, and scientists presented a particular, quite often highly apologetic, self-image which they wanted to be divulged and perpetuated. It is through letters, moreover, that literators, scholars and scientists defined themselves as belonging to a group of people who shared the same interests and ideals, and were engaged in similar endeavors." (Introduction, p. 3)

"What attracts historians to fifteenth century Italy or sixteenth century England as opposed to other periods and places? One answer would be 'letters'. Over a lifetime devoted to archival study of Italian Renaissance humanism and philosophy, Paul Oskar Kristeller came to believe that humanist epistolography was the largest and probably the most interesting body of humanist literature surviving from the period. It had certainly found more favour with modern scholars than other humanist writings, perhaps because the elegant style and interesting content of the letters reflected not only the life and events of the author's day but his or her own, appealingly individualised thoughts and opinions. (1) :

' A very large proportion of the literary production of the humanists consists in their letters. The composition of state letters was, of course, part of their professional activity. As chancelors and secretaries, they were the paid ghost writers of princes and city governments, and the state letters, manifestoes, and other political documents then show as now served to express and spread the interests, ideology, and propaganda of each government, and sometimes to accompany the war of the swords with a war of the pens. Consequently, the state letters of the humanists are valuable documents for the political thought of the period, provided that we take into account the particular circumstances under which these documents were written, and do not take every statement at its face value as the expression of the personal convictions of the writer. The private letter was not merely a vehicle of personal communication; it was intended from the beginning as a literary composition to be copied and read. The humanist letterwriters consciously imitated the classical example of Cicero or Seneca, and they wrote and collected and published their letters with the purpose of having them serve as models for their pupils and successor. (...) Finally, the letter was a favoured substitute for a short treatise of scholarly or literary or philosophical content, favoured because the humanists liked to speak of their experiences and opinions in a personal and subjective fashion, in the first person. In other words, the letter, being more personal than the treatise, performed the functions of the essay, and was actually its forerunner. (2)

"Thus did Kristeller define a whole field of interest in Renaissance thought and letters and his definition derives from his vast practical experience in mining archives for materials." ...

1) Paul Oskar Kristeller, 'Humanism,' in The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, eds. Charles B. Schmitt, Quentin Skinner, Eckhard Kessler, and Jill Kraye (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 113-37 (pp. 123-24)

2) Paul Oskar Kristeller, 'Humanist Learning in the Italian Renaissance,' reprinted from The Centennial Review, 4 (1960) in his Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters II (Rome. 1985) pp. 93-110 (p. 100)

-- Warren V. Boutcher, 'Literature, Thought or Fact? Past and Present Directions in the Study of the Early Modern Letter', in T. Van Houdt, J. Papy. G. Tournoy and C. Matheeussen, (eds.) (Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia XVIII): Self-Presentation and Social Identification : The Rhetoric and Pragmatics of Letter Writing in Early Modern Times, (2002) Leuven University Press. pp. 139-140