The Retórica epistolar (1803), by Antonio Marqués y Espejo, as a Method to Facilitate Written Communication in a Modern Society

Abstract

This study establishes Marqués y Espejo’s Retórica epistolar as a text that is almost entirely a translation from a French work. Marqués y Espejo recognized the fact that the more learned, bourgeois society of the time often used letters to communicate. Always attentive to expanding his readership, Marqués y Espejo adapted his French source to address the difficulties that many letter writers encountered in Spain. Moreover, by including at the end of his treatise a set of original letters penned by himself, Marqués y Espejo reveals his ever-present commitment to improve the situation of women and their education.

Keywords

• nuevas formas de interrelación escrita, nuevo método para escribir cartas misivas, tipos de cartas misivas, philipon de la madelaine, le secrétaire parfait, educación femenina.