As a core element of utopian thought (Utopia) and a reflection of the social and political processes institutionalizing the advance of text-based intellectual culture, the republic of letters was among the central defining concepts of the early modern epoch. The term is the English equivalent of Latin res publica li(t)teraria (French république des lettres, German Gelehrtenrepublik) and denotes the fabric of public academic literacy (Literacy and orality). From the outset, the focus was esse…