As communication technology has developed in recent history, posted letters on paper have become less important as a routine form of communication. Even in the era of telegrams and telephones, letters remained quite important until fax and email further eroded their primacy, especially since the turn of the 21st century. Even in times and places where literacy was lower, illiterate people could pay literate ones to write letters to, and to read letters from, distant correspondents. Letters were a chief form of communication, in both personal and business communication, for many centuries before telegraphy, telephony, and internet communications reduced their primacy. Other major medieval family letter collections include the Stonor Letters (1420 – 1483 CE), Plumpton Letters (1416 – 1552 CE), and Cely Letters (1472-1488 CE). The Paston Letters (1425 – 1520 CE) are widely study for insight into life in Britain during the Wars of the Roses. Historians of the medieval period often study family letter collections, which gather the personal and business correspondence of a group of related people and shed light on their daily life. The study of letter writing usually involves both the study of rhetoric and grammar. There is a wealth of letters and instructional materials (for example, manuals, as in the medieval ars dictaminis) on letter writing throughout history. More recently, letters have mainly been written on paper: handwritten and more recently typed. From Ovid, we learn that Acontius used an apple for his letter to Cydippe. In the ancient world letters might be written on various different materials, including metal, lead, wax-coated wooden tablets, pottery fragments, animal skin, and papyrus. At certain times, the writing of letters was thought to be an art form and a genre of literature, for instance in Byzantine epistolography. Archives of correspondence, whether for personal, diplomatic, or business reasons, serve as primary sources for historians. Letters make up several of the books of the Bible. For some people, letters were seen as a written performance. For some, letters were a way to practice critical reading, self-expressive writing, polemical writing and also exchange ideas with like-minded others. The main purposes of letters were to send information, news and greetings. During the 17th and 18th centuries, letters were used to self-educate. Historically, letters have existed from, ancient India, ancient Egypt and Sumer, through Rome, Greece and China, up to the present day. A thank-you letter from Katharine Hepburn to Alan Light thanking him for his condolences in regards of Cary Grant's death
0 kommentar(er)
