Guittone e le origini dell'epistolografia in volgare

This article examines the first collections of letters which were written in the vernacular and compiled in Italy during the 13th and 14th centuries, with the aim of determining the events and conditions which led to the birth of the genre. What is common to all of them - from Guittone to Santa Caterina - is their Tuscan origins and, even more importantly, their Christian apologetics and their intention to cancel any specific references so as to raise the letters to the level of moral treatise.