ABSTRACT
Treatise is more than a decade older than any of the other works in the manuscript; in fact, it is the earliest known original ars dictandi of French provenance. Teachers with the same type of training and range of interests were doubtless common in the schools of Tours and Orleans during the second half of the twelfth century, but most of their names either have vanished altogether or have survived only in the title of a treatise. A grammar master first and a dictator second, he therefore attempted to apply his knowledge of the colores in order to streamline the process of introducing his students to the 'new' discipline of dictamen. Rather than simply collecting models to be imitated or copied, he devised a 'generative' method of stylistic variation to accompany his concise remarks on the structure of a letter.
