He began his teaching career in the early 1280s, where medieval scholars propose he traveled first to Bologna, then sojourned in Rome, Toulouse, and Orléans (Jensen 1973).

Along with writing manuscripts, Lawrence combined his civic and teaching career, composing letters on behalf of the university at Paris.

In the first of the treatise’s eight main parts, Lawrence defines the basic concepts related to dictaminal writing: orator, rhetor, dictatores, and dictamen.

The Practica’s formulaic, pragmatic approach to letter writing not only contributed to its popularity but also represents the “mechanistic dead end” (Perelman 1991) of the ars dictaminis.

The Practica “struck a responsive chord” (Murphy 1974), as no formal artistic training or rhetorical command of language was necessary to write a letter following Lawrence’s tables.

Some scholars ascribe these works to John of Bondi, believed to be Lawrence’s pupil, but it was regular practice for dictatores to compose different versions of the same manuscript (Murphy 1974).

With his formulaic approach to the ars dictaminis, Lawrence introduced a pragmatic form in his Practica that “t[ook] the chartistic view to its ultimate point” (Murphy 1974).

Furthermore, the Practica marks a shift from content- to form-based writing and emphasizes a “phatic rhetoric of personal and official relations” (Perelman 1991).

Lawrence’s applied approach to letter writing also stands as an early ancestor to modern texts on business communication (Perelman 1991).