Women’s Voices in Medieval Artes Dictandi and Model Letter Collections

A salutation of a model letter sent by Petrus and Maria to their son Johannes.

This is the first of five examples of salutations exchanged between parents and children which are contained in the text. They follow a series of salutations that represent the hierarchical structure of medieval society from the highest ranked (emperor and pope; representatives of high secular and clerical status) to the lowest (socii and friends, masters and students). At the bottom rung of this social ladder we find exactly the model salutations used by children living away from home while studying and their parents. Their communication requires that norms, which usually regulate the correspondence between superiors and subjects, should be followed. This means that the names of parents have to be placed before those of their children whether they are the senders or the recipients of letters. This rule does not involve parental gender-based differences.

This salutation should be used when parents through the act of blessing express love for their children, who, in turn, demonstrate that they regard them with due obsequium: In salutationibus quoque que a parentibus ad filios ex dilectionis affectu diriguntur semper benedictionem ponere consueuimus, hoc pacto quia scriptum est: obsequia filiorum parentes letificant, et ipsorum benedictionibus filii iugiter augmentantur