The transmission of Byzantine letters still lacks a new interpretative approach, leaving aside the idea of an archetypus. Michael Psellos’ letters (eleventh century) may serve as an example to demonstrate how the process of rhetorical recycling and re-using of letters worked. His letters are preserved in a large number of manuscripts, but none of them contains a complete collection. Similarly to the late-antique epistolographer Libanios, Psellos became a model of letter writing for later generations and parts of his texts have been adapted in new contexts. The Psellian letter collection therefore offers an excellent case-study to analyse how his manuscripts and texts were used again and again in the course of history.