• Part 1 Background to the Question; Chapter 1 Framing the Facts in Medieval Epistolary Theory; Chapter 2 Persuasion and Reception; Chapter 3 Pope vs. Emperor: The Issues of Contention; Part 2 Persuasion and Power at the Papal Chancery; Chapter 4 Elevated Prose Style and Power at the Chancery of Innocent III; Chapter 5 Harmony and Conflict at the Chancery of Honorius III; Chapter 6 Limits of Persuasion at the Chancery of Gregory IX; Part 3 Persuasion and Resistance at the Imperial Chancery; Chapter 7 Emergence of a New Paradigm of Persuasion; Chapter 8 Persuasion and the Science of Nature at the Court of Frederick II; Chapter 9 The Failure of Persuasion; Conclusion; Bibliography Index;

"Shepard's citations of sources and of modern scholarship are complete and transparent." -- Speculum-A Journal of Medieval Studies"Although she teaches literature, her reading in the historical sources is broad and deep. She has underlined the importance of rhetoric as a tool fir thirteenth-century society and has described its cultivation and use. There is much valuable information in the book and in the notes to guide students who are interested in the field of rhetoric and its rebirth in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.--Kenneth Pennington, International History Review, Catholic University of American."