In recent years there has been a renewed interest in correspondence both as
a literary genre and as cultural practice, and several studies have appeared,
mainly spanning the centuries between Early and Late Modern times.
However, it is between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that the roots
of contemporary usage begin to evolve, thanks to the circulation of new
educational materials and more widespread schooling practices.
In this volume, chapters representing diverse but complementary
methodological approaches discuss linguistic and discursive practices of
correspondence in Late Modern Europe, in order to offer material for the
comparative, cross-linguistic analyses of patterns occurring in different social
The volume aims to provide a general and solid methodological structure
for the study of largely untapped language material from a variety of
comparable sources, and is expected to appeal to scholars and students
interested in the linguistic history of epistolary writing practices, as well as to
all those interested in the more recent history of European languages.