First published in 1534 in conjunction with Desiderius Erasmus' treatise of the same name,[1] Vives's work attempts to teach letter writers how to engage a variety of audiences.
Since the early days of the Roman Empire, letter writers had attempted to apply the principles of oratory wholesale to epistolary composition.
Vives warns that it is easy for a writer to slip into "... impudence or arrogance or loquacity or ostentation or cunning or pedantic affectation or excessive and parasitical flattery or ignorance or imprudence.
The reason is that, as Saint Ambrose told Sabinus, "In a letter the image of the living presence emits its glow between persons distant from each other, and conversation committed to writing unites those who are separated from each other.
Following the pattern Vives sets out in his discussion of the exordium, the bulk of De conscribendis epistolis covers the components of the letter and considerations for composition such as diction and addresses on superscriptions.