Without the use of television, telephone, radio, Internet or the postal service, correspondence took place in the form of letters delivered by private messengers. Letters were written on parchment (pieces of dried animal skin) with the use of ink and quill pen.
In the century before any signs of a regulated post, there were three main ways to send a letter: with your own servant, with a paid messenger, or with a carter, who hauled heavy goods around the country.
Even the luckiest messenger could take weeks to get from sender to receiver, so many decisions were made and events occurred before a message ever got to its recipient.
Parchment Making
Most medieval manuscripts were written on specially treated animal skins, called parchment or vellum (paper did not become common in Europe until around 1450). The pelts were first soaked in a lime solution to loosen the fur, which was then removed.
chain mail, also called Mail, form of body armour worn by European knights and other military men throughout most of the medieval period.
Western Europe had no postal system as such during the Middle Ages. It was possible to send letters to people, but you'd have to find somebody heading in that direction (say, a merchant or religious pilgrim) and convince them to deliver them for you. This tended to make the mail, such as it was, slow and irregular.
The beginning of an ars dictaminis letter is the salutation, or greeting. Starting a letter with “Dear” or “To whomever it may concern” are examples of modern salutations. You will likely be more comfortable with one of these phrases over medieval salutations, such as “Worshipful master, I greet you well.”
Now, if you were literate and an emperor, king, or noble, you usually hired a courier to deliver the letter, or selected someone you liked or didn't like to deliver the news, depending upon the type of news you wanted to deliver; the phrase "don't shoot the messenger" is a modernized (16th century) version of an older ...
Textura Script
Sometimes called Gothic Book Hand or Black Letter, this was the most enduring script of the Middle Ages and was in use from the twelfth to the sixteenth century.
The first ever handwritten letter was thought to have been sent by the Persian Queen Atossa in around 500 BC, according to the ancient historian Hellanicus. Their popularity as a way of sending messages grew as more people became literate.
Letters were often handed directly to captains of ships and boats. U.S. law required captains to deliver all mail to the post office at the first port of entry, but they sometimes were brought to addressees or local posts for delivery.
Sending letters has been a common form of communication for years. In history letters were delivered not to addresses but to specific people in specific towns by various modes of transport such as; horseback, messenger on foot and even by pigeons.
Postal workers send the mail to its destination by truck, train, ship, or airplane. Postal services around the world cooperate so that mail can even travel between countries. At the destination, letter carriers deliver the mail to each address. Many letter carriers travel on foot or in small mail trucks.
Most people did this either by folding a separate piece of paper or by writing on the front of the paper and leaving the back blank to fold into an envelope. Once the letter was written it was sealed with a piece of melted wax.
Scholars believe that's why the Phoenicians called the first letter of their alphabet “aleph,” meaning ox. In fact, the Phoenicians drew their letter “A” to look like the head of an ox — well, at least the tilted head of an ox. It resembled our letter “K,” with its two diagonals representing the ox's horns.
In Western Europe, Latin was the common language for medieval writing, since Latin was the language of the Roman Catholic Church, which dominated Western and Central Europe, and since the Church was virtually the only source of education.
Conclusion - don't repeat the subject matter. Salute the recipient again if you wish. You may also wish to 'affirm' - state your loyalty, write about the pleasant effects to result from their compliance with your desire (ie: "Believe me your most loyal servant and humble petitioner while I live.").
Letters were usually sent by slaves. If a letter had to be sent far away, there was an opportunity waiting for someone to go to that area. The speed of sending a letter, for those times, was enormous, a horse messenger a day covered 40-50 Roman miles (64-80 km).
In the Middle Ages, diplomats, merchants, and scholars would gather information and keep records about news that were relevant to them through journals, account books, and letters.
herald, originally, an officer in medieval Europe charged with carrying messages to and from the commanders of opposing armies; in modern times, a professional authority on armorial history and genealogy.
“Dear so-and-so” is the standard greeting for letters. There is nothing wrong with keeping things simple or jazzing it up with something unique! If you are writing a love letter, try using “To my Dearest” or “To my Love” to sound more romantic. Feel free to jazz up your greeting if you are writing to a close friend.
The first letter ever written was believed to be one sent by Queen Atossa of Persia in around 500 BC. It has been cited as the most important letter of all time by history and humanities professor Bríd McGrath, of Trinity College, Dublin. Born in 550 BC, Atossa became queen at the age of 28.
The medieval runes, or the futhork, was a Scandinavian runic alphabet that evolved from the Younger Futhark after the introduction of stung (or dotted) runes at the end of the Viking Age.