After the elementary curriculum, students would usually move on to ars dictaminis, the theory and practice of writing prose letters, which was incredibly important. It was one of the last steps of medieval education. As the demand for public correspondence increased in the 12- and 1300's, the need for students to know how to write accurate, concise, and hierarchically correct letters increased.
A typical medieval letter had to involve five major parts: salutatio (a salutation), benevolentiae captatio (ordering the words in such a way to secure good will with the addressee), narratio (the exposition, or discussion of the matter at hand), Petitio (a request), and Conclusio (the conclusion, or farewell).
Everything had to be very carefully crafted based on the hierarchical positions of who was writing it and who was reading it. Courses usually involved practice letters that had to be copied. Once again, it brought up this idea of teaching knowledge rather than wisdom. It taught students every possible iteration and forced them to memorize.
A typical medieval letter had to involve five major parts: salutatio (a salutation), benevolentiae captatio (ordering the words in such a way to secure good will with the addressee), narratio (the exposition, or discussion of the matter at hand), Petitio (a request), and Conclusio (the conclusion, or farewell).
Everything had to be very carefully crafted based on the hierarchical positions of who was writing it and who was reading it. Courses usually involved practice letters that had to be copied. Once again, it brought up this idea of teaching knowledge rather than wisdom. It taught students every possible iteration and forced them to memorize.