Description: This book explores the theory and practice of medieval letter-writing, arguing that the form, proportion and style of letters were contoured by ideology.
Review Quotes:
"Shepard's citations of sources and of modern scholarship are complete and transparent." -- Speculum-A Journal of Medieval Studies
"Although she teaches literature, her reading in the historical sources is broad and deep. She has underlined the importance of rhetoric as a tool fir thirteenth-century society and has described its cultivation and use. There is much valuable information in the book and in the notes to guide students who are interested in the field of rhetoric and its rebirth in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.--Kenneth Pennington, International History Review, Catholic University of American."