Modern Biblical Criticism and the Legacy of Pre-Modern Interpretation

2019 ◽  
pp. 703-722
Author(s):  
Michael C. Legaspi
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Biblical Criticism ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
Biblical Literature ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Hugo Grotius ◽  
Christian Culture ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Changing Attitudes

Although biblical criticism in the early modern period is often identified with the rejection of tradition, a closer examination reveals a more complex effort to investigate the literal sense while retaining the authority of Christian culture and Antiquity. This chapter traces the development of early modern biblical criticism in relation to changing attitudes toward early Christian interpreters. Focusing on the Republic of Letters and figures such as Erasmus and Hugo Grotius, it also examines the pivotal contribution of French Oratorian Richard Simon. Simon is important not only for his critical histories of biblical literature but also for his articulation of the relation between criticism and traditional authority. Finally, this chapter considers the ways that Simon’s conception of criticism paved the way for academic interpreters in the eighteenth century, notably Johann Salomo Semler.

Circles of Confidence in Correspondence

Nuncius ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles van den Heuvel ◽  
Scott B. Weingart ◽  
Nils Spelt ◽  
Henk Nellen
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Knowledge Exchange ◽  
Technological Knowledge ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
Religious Conflicts ◽  
Hugo Grotius ◽  
The Republic

Science in the early modern world depended on openness in scholarly communication. On the other hand, a web of commercial, political, and religious conflicts required broad measures of secrecy and confidentiality; similar measures were integral to scholarly rivalries and plagiarism. This paper analyzes confidentiality and secrecy in intellectual and technological knowledge exchange via letters and drawings. We argue that existing approaches to understanding knowledge exchange in early modern Europe – which focus on the Republic of Letters as a unified entity of corresponding scholars – can be improved upon by analyzing multilayered networks of communication. We describe a data model to analyze circles of confidence and cultures of secrecy in intellectual and technological knowledge exchanges. Finally, we discuss the outcomes of a first experiment focusing on the question of how personal and professional/official relationships interact with confidentiality and secrecy, based on a case study of the correspondence of Hugo Grotius.

‘Wer Socinianische Bücher sucht, findet sie bey ihm am ehesten’

Quaerendo ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-157
Author(s):  
Rietje van Vliet
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
International Market ◽  
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Republic

Abstract The microhistory of the Amsterdam-based Sebastiaan Petzold († 1704) demonstrates that in the Early Modern Period booksellers without a network were hardly able to manage professionally in the Republic of Letters. Petzold relied especially on patronage from Socinianist circles. The Socinian theologian Samuel Crellius (1660-1747) saw to it that Petzold was able to publish three highly controversial Socinian works, including the notorious Platonisme devoilé (1700). Petzold was also introduced to some prominent English booksellers thanks to Crell, which provided him with access to the international market. Another patron was the Berlin court preacher Daniel Ernst Jablonski (1660-1741), who recommended Petzold to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. In Amsterdam the literary society ‘In Magnis Voluisse Sat Est’ commissioned Petzold to publish the complete works of Lucretius, an Epicurean work which was a favourite in anti-clerical circles. In spite of this support, in the end Petzold was besieged by creditors, instead of authors thronging at his door.

The Information Revolution in Early Modern Europe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M. Dover
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Information Revolution ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
Historical Significance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Europe ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Transformative Impact

This provocative new history of early modern Europe argues that changes in the generation, preservation and circulation of information, chiefly on newly available and affordable paper, constituted an 'information revolution'. In commerce, finance, statecraft, scholarly life, science, and communication, early modern Europeans were compelled to place a new premium on information management. These developments had a profound and transformative impact on European life. The huge expansion in paper records and the accompanying efforts to store, share, organize and taxonomize them are intertwined with many of the essential developments in the early modern period, including the rise of the state, the Print Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, and the Republic of Letters. Engaging with historical questions across many fields of human activity, Paul M. Dover interprets the historical significance of this 'information revolution' for the present day, and suggests thought-provoking parallels with the informational challenges of the digital age.

The Maronite college in early modern Rome: Between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Letters

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurélien Girard ◽  
Giovanni Pizzorusso
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Catholic Colleges ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
Cultural Challenges ◽  
Educational Challenges ◽  
The Republic ◽  
College Managers ◽  
Jesuit College

In the early modern period, Catholic communities under Protestant jurisdictions were not alone in establishing collegial networks in Catholic centres. The Maronites, a Christian Church in communion with Rome faced educational challenges similar to those of Catholic communities in western Protestant states. A Maronite College was founded in Rome in 1584, on the model of others Catholic colleges created in Rome in the second part of the sixteenth century. Until now, traditional Maronite and Lebanese historiography has tended to treat the institution in isolation from the other collegial networks and from the global perspective of the papacy on the challenge of educating national clergies in non-Catholic jurisdictions. This essay presents an overview of the Maronite College in Rome, outlining the context for its foundation (the Roman Catholic mission in the Near East) and the links with others colleges. To plot the evolution of the institution, two versions of the college rules (1585 and 1732) are compared. They were influenced by the changing attitudes of the papacy, the foundation of Propaganda Fide, the activities of the Jesuits and changes within the Maronite patriarchate itself. The second part establishes a profile of the early modern staff and students of the college. Details are available on 280 Maronite students received by the institution between 1584 and 1788. For the young Maronites, life in Rome was difficult, with changes in diet and conditions, financial worries and cultural challenges. There were frequent interventions by the Lebanese authorities with the Jesuit college managers. Special attention is paid to the course of studies in Rome and academic links with other Roman institutions, especially neighbouring Jesuit colleges. The third part discusses the links between the Roman college and changes in the middle-eastern Maronite community. The Maronite college was the main European gateway for the Maronites. Some eastern Catholics chose to remain in Europe, often to follow academic careers. Attention is also paid to the relationship between the College and the Maronite diaspora and its links with intellectual life in the West. In the latter context, the role of the College library and its manuscript collection in facilitating Western academic access to oriental languages and thought is described. Like other networks, the Maronite college fulfilled a broad range of functions that went well beyond the simple training of clergy.

Unparteilichkeit und das Problem der Trennung von Person und Sache

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-80
Author(s):  
Daniel Stader ◽  
Anita Traninger
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Pierre Bayle

Abstract This article seeks to show how the republic of letters as an ideal of communication took shape between the early modern period and the early enlightenment by transforming the culture of debate within universities. While oral university disputations arbitrarily distributed the roles of respondent and opponent, thus intentionally dissociating the man and the position defended, the republic of letters, which operates through texts and preferably in the periodic press, presupposes all speech acts to be assertive. It is taken for granted that all defended positions are actually held by the speaker. Drawing on the works of Pierre Bayle, Christian Thomasius, and Christian Gottfried Hoffmann, this article will argue that the separation of person and argument is reconceived in the service of a newly emerging public sphere. Impartiality is introduced as a specific quality of judgement that is required of all participants as a type of self-regulation, thus compensating the loss of the institutional frame that was previously provided by disputation.

Nemesius of Emesa on Human Nature

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lloyd Dusenbury
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
European Universities ◽  
Modern Period

Nemesius of Emesa’s On Human Nature (De Natura Hominis) is the first Christian anthropology. Written in Greek, circa 390 CE, it was read in half a dozen languages—from Baghdad to Oxford—well into the early modern period. Nemesius’ text circulated in two Latin versions in the centuries that saw the rise of European universities, shaping scholastic theories of human nature. During the Renaissance, it saw a flurry of print editions, helping to inspire a new discourse of human dignity. This is the first monograph in English on Nemesius’ treatise. On the interpretation offered here, the Syrian bishop seeks to define the human qua human. His early Christian anthropology is cosmopolitan. ‘Things that are natural’, he writes, ‘are the same for all’. In his pages, a host of texts and discourses—biblical and medical, legal and philosophical—are made to converge upon a decisive tenet of Christian late antiquity: humans’ natural freedom. For Nemesius, reason and choice are a divine double-strand of powers. Since he believes that both are a natural human inheritance, he concludes that much is ‘in our power’. Nemesius defines humans as the only living beings who are at once ruler (intellect) and ruled (body). Because of this, the human is a ‘little world’, binding the rationality of angels to the flux of elements, the tranquillity of plants, and the impulsiveness of animals. This book traces Nemesius’ reasoning through the whole of On Human Nature, as he seeks to give a long-influential image of humankind both philosophical and anatomical proof.

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