Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Correspondence, learned
(833 words)

1. Functions and content

Correspondence was the oldest and long the most important form of written communication in the world of learning. For scholars, it constitutes one of the most productive sources for the study of developments in the history of scholarship. The often prodigious correspondence (sometimes 20,000 or more letters) of scholars of European importance (e.g. Erasmus of Rotterdam, Hugo Grotius, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Johann Christoph Gottsched) document the life of the early modern Republic …

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Döring, Detlef, “Correspondence, learned”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_019807>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20170206



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