Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2019

DOI

10.1353/jhi.2019.0023

Publication Title

Journal of the History of Ideas

Volume

80

Issue

3

Pages

365-386

Abstract

For a project on the origins and migrations of the European nations, Leibniz wanted to see a comparative lexicon purporting to derive the Germanic languages from Asiatic sources. Friends in nearby Gotha were known to have the book; its author had corresponded with Leibniz a few years earlier. But actually getting the book was more difficult than one might expect. In addition to the actual logistics and manners of scholarly communication in the late seventeenth century, this essay shows what scholars were trying to accomplish by establishing the prehistoric origins of the modern nations.

Comments

Copyright © by Journal of the History of Ideas, Volume 80, Number 3 (July 2019)

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of scholarly citation, none of this work may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. For information address the University of Pennsylvania Press, 3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112.

Original Publication Citation

Carhart, M. C. (2019). Practices of intellectual labor in the Republic of Letters: Leibniz and Edward Bernard on language and European origins. Journal of the History of Ideas, 80(3), 365-386. doi:10.1353/jhi.2019.0023

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