Courting Power: Persuasion and Politics in the Early Thirteenth Century

Courting Power chronicles a significant deviation in epistolary persuasion in the 1230's, crystallized at the imperial chancery of Frederick II, Emperor from 1220-1250. here, traditional appeals, premised on authority and harmony, were challenged by letters in which historical circumstances functioned as an integral part of the strategy of persuasion. The papal account of providential history articulated by Popes Innocent II, Honorius II, and Gregory IX, was set against the secular court's reading of events. Courting Powerexplores the theory and practice of medieval letter-writing as at once conservative, cognizant of its own traditions, yet receptive to the influence of other spheres of intellectual activity-whether spiritual, legal, scientific or political. Letters are evaluated as verbal acts intended to persuade, with the public as the ultimate arbiter of success. The author argues that the form, proportion and style of letters were contoured by ideology.