A dictatorship of letters

Bernard de Meung was one of the theoreticians of the ars dictaminis. His work Summa dictaminis written in the 1190s, was hugely influential. Here, a leaf from a manuscript of his works, British Library, Cotton MS Vitellius C VIII, f. 131r.

There were many dictators in late medieval Europe, but not the kind of dictators you'd expect. Not the autocratic ru…