THE REPUBLIC OF LETTERS AS A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

Abstract

This article argues that the concept of the ‘Republic of Letters’ or ‘commonwealth of learning’ is just as useful for writing the intellectual history of the modern period, 1750–2000 as it is in the case of the early modern period, to which the term is generally confined. The rise of nationalism and specialization in the nineteenth century was sufficient to modify but not to destroy the community of scholars. Examining the Republic not only as an imagined community but also as a system of communications, the author distinguishes four periods, that of the horse-drawn commonwealth (1500–1850); the age of steam (railways and steamships and the steam press) (1850–1950); the age of jet travel (1950–90) and the age of the personal computer and the Internet (1990-). Divisions between parts of the commonwealth and disruptions to it will be discussed, but it will be argued that reactions to these problems revealed the survival of solidarity.

Keywords:

• commonwealth of learning
• communication
• imagined community
• network
• Republic of Letters
• scholarship

Notes

1. Studies include, in chronological order, Bots, Republiek der Letteren; Kühlmann, Gelehrtenrepublik und Fürstenstaat; Neumeister and Wiedemann, Respublica litterarum; Goodman, The Republic of Letters; Goldgar, Impolite Learning; Bots and F. Waquet, La République des Lettres.

2. This aspect is stressed by Bots and Waquet, Commercium; Ultee, ‘Letters’.

3. Fumaroli, ‘The Republic of Letters’.

4. Anderson, Imagined Communities.

5. Anderson, Imagined Communities 36; Jardine, Erasmus; Burke, ‘Erasmus’.

6. The function of integration is stressed in Schneider, Friedrich Nicolais Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek.

7. On simultaneity, Anderson, Imagined Communities 145, 194. On leading journals, Bost, Un intellectuel; Gardair, Giornale de'letterati; Laeven, Acta Eruditorum.

8. Jaumann, Europäische Gelehrtenrepublik; A. Grafton, ‘A Sketch Map’.

9. On Boston and Philadelphia, Fiering, ‘The Transatlantic Republic’.

10. Daston, ‘Ideal and Reality’; Goldgar, Impolite Learning.

11. Goldgar, Impolite Learning and Bots and Waquet, La République, end in 1750. Goodman, The Republic of Letters, ends with the Revolution. On éclatement, Bots and Waquet, La République 58; on écroulement, Masseau, L'invention de l'intellectuel 122–7.

12. Beer, The Sciences; Daston, ‘Ideal and Reality’; Banks qtd. in Gascoigne, Science 155.

13. Gascoigne, Science 159.

14. Meinecke, Weltbürgertum.

15. Burke, Social History, 000–000.

16. Bots and Waquet, République 159.

17. Becher, Academic Tribes; Burke, Social History 000–000.

18. Bots and Waquet, République 159; Veblen, The Higher Learning 48.

19. Cf. Karady, ‘La république des lettres’; Callisen and Adkins, ‘Pre-digital Virtuality’ (my thanks to the authors for letting me read this paper before its publication).

20. Hagstrom, The Scientific Community 30.

21. Brocke, Wissenschaftsgeschichte und Wissenschaftspolitik 185–6; Weiner, ‘The Refugees’ 194, 196.

22. Erdmann, Towards a Global Community.

23. On German as a learned lingua franca, Ammon, ‘Deutsche als Wissenschaftssprache’.

24. A vivid example in Hesketh, ‘Diagnosing Froude's Disease’.

25. Snow, Two Cultures.

26. Crane, Invisible Colleges.

27. Polanyi, Science Faith; cf. Jouvenel, ‘Republic of Science’.

28. Law, ‘The Development of Specialties’. Cf Crawford, ‘The Universe’.

29. Johnson, Kaiser's Chemists 181–2.

30. Lyon, Henri Pirenne 247–8, 258–62; cf. Chickering, Karl Lamprecht.

31. Kevles, ‘Reorganization’.

32. Discussed in Levie, L'homme. Cf Laqua, ‘European Internationalism (s).

33. Darnton, Case 13, 58, 106; Callisen and Adkins, ‘Predigital Virtuality’.

34. Crawford, Shinn, and Sörlin, Denationalizing Science 4; Snelgrove, Discoveries.

35. Thomas Friedman, qtd. in Hannerz, Anthropology's World 114.

36. Swaan, Words of the World 41–59. Cf. Crystal, English as a Global Language; Nerrière, Parlez Globish; McCrum, Globish 210–54. More sceptical, at least so far as the long term is concerned, Ostler, The Last Lingua Franca.

37. Hannerz, Anthropology's World 113–30.

38. Jeanneney, Quand Google défie l'Europe.

39. Darnton, Case 43–58; Grafton, ‘Codex in Crisis’.

40. Halavais, ‘Scholarly Blogging’ 117.

41. Connell, Southern Theory.

42. Waquet, Parler comme un livre.

43. Hoch and Platt, ‘Migration’.