The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment

1995 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Marie-France Hilgar ◽  
Dena Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
French Enlightenment ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic

scholarly journals Batalia „szklanej rury”. Współzawodnictwo „starego” i „nowego” w debacie wokół doświadczeń z próżnią z 1647 roku

1970 ◽  
pp. 167-190
Author(s):  
Anna Kołos
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
Blaise Pascal ◽  
Normal Science ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
Knowledge Formation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic

The article addresses the issue of one of the more intense and captivating European scientific disputes, likewise common to Poland, in the era of the seventeenth-century transformation of knowledge formation, which centered around the possibility of the existence of vacuum, and which culminated in 1647. The fundamental aim of the article comes down to an attempt to determine a position in the scientific-cognitive debate, from which the pro and anti-Polish and European representatives of The Republic of Letters (Respublica literaria)  could voice their opinions. In the course of the analysis of the mid-seventeenth century scientific discourse, the reflections of Valeriano Magni, Torricelli, Jan Brożek, Wojciech Wijuk Kojałowicz, Blaise Pascal, Giovanni Elefantuzzi, Jacob Pierius, and Pierre Guiffart are subjected to close scrutiny. From the perspective of contextualism in the history of science, experiments demonstrating the existence of vacuum are perceived as anomalies that fall into the crisis of normal science, largely based on Aristotle’s physics. The conflict between the old and the new is not, however, presented as a battle of progression with epigonism, but merely as a contest between opposing individual views and the concept of science, which before the formation of the new paradigm was accompanied by ambiguous verification criteria.

Patristic Scholarship and Religious Contention, 1678–1716

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-303
Author(s):  
Jetze Touber
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Specific Interests ◽  
Scholarly Attention ◽  
Collective Enterprise

Lactantius’s treatise De mortibus persecutorum, which celebrates the end of the persecutions of Christians in the Roman empire, was lost for six centuries. Its discovery in 1678 was a European event which set the sophisticated machinery of information exchange in the republic of letters in motion. Scholars joined forces in expounding the historical significance of the patristic text. However, this collective enterprise was also bound up with theological-political interests. Editors and commentators were all affected by affairs of state and ecclesiastical policy, which conditioned their engagement with the treatise. This article reviews the editorial history of De mortibus persecutorum, during the three decades in which it attracted scholarly attention, and it highlights the specific interests of the scholars involved. The focus will be on Gijsbert Cuper (1644–1716), often depicted as an exemplary member of the republic of letters. His paper legacy allows us to recover the theological-political concerns which informed his investigations.

Leibniz’s Network

2018 ◽  
pp. 562-590
Author(s):  
Howard Hotson
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Primary Reason ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
Digital Infrastructure ◽  
Major Subject ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic ◽  
New Generation

Leibniz’s network is a major subject of study in its own right, exemplifying the centrality of the ‘republic of letters’ to the intellectual history of early modern Europe.  Yet the primary reason for discussing it here is that understanding Leibniz’s network is also indispensable for understanding his thought.  Leibniz’s thought is not a fixed product, immortalized in a small number of polished publications.  Its content and expression evolved constantly in a long series of fragmentary statements, many penned in dialogue with contemporaries.  To understand these fragments, we must understand the hundreds of people with whom Leibniz was interacting, and the networks and communities for which they spoke.  Grasping the complexity of these interactions surpasses the limitations of print technology.  Obtaining a synoptic understanding of Leibniz’s network therefore requires a new generation of digital infrastructure capable of assembling and exploring the relevant data in a highly collaborative and interactive fashion.

Publishing Robinson's Reports Of Cases Argued And Determined In The High Court Of Admiralty

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Gordan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
High Court ◽  
American Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Republic

Since the year 1798, the decisions of Sir William Scott, (now Lord Stowell) on the admiralty side of Westminster Hall, have been read and admired in every region of the republic of letters, as models of the most cultivated and the most enlightened human reason.James Kent, Commentaries on American Law Vol. 2, (New York: O. Halsted 1827), 526. Chancellor Kent's single, luminous sentence, published while Sir William Scott was still on the bench, presents the questions this article will explore. It investigates two interrelated aspects of the trajectory of the first decade of Sir William Scott's admiralty judgments: the history of their nearly simultaneous publication on both sides of the Atlantic and dissemination into the transnational “republic of letters” and the circumstances of their immediate absorption as precedents into the jurisprudence of the United States.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document