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Der Umgang mit Falschmeldungen in der hochmittelalterlichen Briefkultur
Abstract With the quantitative increase in written communication, handbooks for writing letters (ars dictaminis) emerged as of the 11th century. In them, theoretical considerations were also given about how to deal with fake news. In this context fictitious sample letters for dealing with fake news were also written and distributed, which gave the students and prospective notaries models for responding to such fake news. Evidently, these theoretical rules were transferred to practical application, as can be clearly seen in the letters of Emperor Frederick II and the popes of his time in the first half of the 13th century, in which the dispute between the emperors and popes was fought out. In these letters, warnings were repeatedly given against fake news and defamation while the truthfulness of their own information was invoked. Collections of these letters, created later under the names of Petrus de Vinea or Thomas von Capua, were still used in many chancelleries in the 14th and 15th centuries as models and copied when it came to countering fake news with exemplary wording.
Keywords rhetoric; sample letters; rumours; ars dictaminis
