This book reconstructs the history of a set of “dialogues of the dead” published in Germany between 1729 and 1734. The protagonists of the texts, all published anonymously or under pseudonyms, include some of the most famous philosophers of the 17th century (René Descartes, Gottfried W. Leibniz, Balthasar Bekker), alongside German philosophers and theologians of the early 18th century (Christian Thomasius, August Hermann Francke, Johann Franz Budde, Nikolaus Hieronymus Gundling, Andreas Rüdiger, Johann Friedrich Mayer, Johann Wilhelm Petersen), for the most part or strongly influenced by Pietism. During the five years in which the dialogues appeared, the texts triggered a heated debate on several levels: philosophical, theological, economic and personal. For several reasons, the reciprocal connection between these dialogues – and often their mere existence – has remained unknown. The published dialogues are currently scattered among German libraries, often bound together with unrelated contemporary texts. Since their authors sold the texts as Flugschriften (unbound cheap prints), they only survive in few copies until today, as they were not intended for careful preservation in private libraries. In rare cases the dialogues are mentioned in scholarly studies and bibliographies, and then they are almost always attributed to the Saxon journalist David Fassmann, at the time the most famous German author of dialogues of the dead. The author of this study demonstrates that these dialogues form a coherent corpus, reconstructs their composition, and interprets the controversies ‘staged’ by the authors of the texts using the fictitious protagonists. Research on the philosophical and theological underground of early 18th-century universities in Central Germany resulted in refuting Fassmann’s authorship of all texts, establishing a relationship between the symbolic illustrations and the content of the texts and shedding some light on the concrete interactions between engravers, university circles, authors, and publishers in the early German Enlightenment. The book shows how the integration of usually separate research fields (clandestine literature, anonymity, ‘street literature’, philosophical dialogue) and the attention to social groups placed at the fringe of the ‘established’ German academic milieus (students, engravers) could contribute to the telling of several vicissitudes of the German Enlightenment from a new perspective.
Il libro ricostruisce la storia di un corpus di "dialoghi dei morti" pubblicati in Germania tra il 1729 e il 1734. I protagonisti dei testi, tutti pubblicati anonimi o con pseudonimi, includono alcuni dei più famosi filosofi del Diciassettesimo secolo (Descartes, Leibniz, Bekker), insieme a filosofi e teologi tedeschi del primo Settecento (Thomasius, Francke, Budde, Gundling, Rüdiger, Mayer, Petersen), in maggioranza fortemente influenzati dal Pietismo. Durante i cinque anni in cui i dialoghi sono usciti hanno innescato un dibattito a più livelli: teologico, filosofico, economico, personale. Molteplici ragioni hanno fatto sì che il legame reciproco tra i dialoghi e spesso la loro stessa esistenza siano rimasti finora ignoti. Nei rari casi in cui i testi fossero menzionati in studi e bibliografie, questi erano solitamente attribuiti al giornalista sassone David Fassmann. L'autrice di questo studio dimostra come questi dialoghi, all'epoca pubblicati in forma separata l'uno dall'altro, formino un corpus unitario, ricostruisce la loro genesi, e interpreta le controversie "messe in scena" dagli autori per mezzo delle fittizie figure dei protagonisti. Ricerche sulla diffusione di letteratura clandestina nelle università tedesche del primo Settecento hanno inoltre permesso di confutare la paternità di Fassmann e di ricostruire la rete di stampatori, autori e incisori che furono al centro della produzione di questi testi.
Die philosophischen Totengespräche der Frühaufklärung / Suitner, R. - (2016).
Die philosophischen Totengespräche der Frühaufklärung
Suitner R
2016
Abstract
This book reconstructs the history of a set of “dialogues of the dead” published in Germany between 1729 and 1734. The protagonists of the texts, all published anonymously or under pseudonyms, include some of the most famous philosophers of the 17th century (René Descartes, Gottfried W. Leibniz, Balthasar Bekker), alongside German philosophers and theologians of the early 18th century (Christian Thomasius, August Hermann Francke, Johann Franz Budde, Nikolaus Hieronymus Gundling, Andreas Rüdiger, Johann Friedrich Mayer, Johann Wilhelm Petersen), for the most part or strongly influenced by Pietism. During the five years in which the dialogues appeared, the texts triggered a heated debate on several levels: philosophical, theological, economic and personal. For several reasons, the reciprocal connection between these dialogues – and often their mere existence – has remained unknown. The published dialogues are currently scattered among German libraries, often bound together with unrelated contemporary texts. Since their authors sold the texts as Flugschriften (unbound cheap prints), they only survive in few copies until today, as they were not intended for careful preservation in private libraries. In rare cases the dialogues are mentioned in scholarly studies and bibliographies, and then they are almost always attributed to the Saxon journalist David Fassmann, at the time the most famous German author of dialogues of the dead. The author of this study demonstrates that these dialogues form a coherent corpus, reconstructs their composition, and interprets the controversies ‘staged’ by the authors of the texts using the fictitious protagonists. Research on the philosophical and theological underground of early 18th-century universities in Central Germany resulted in refuting Fassmann’s authorship of all texts, establishing a relationship between the symbolic illustrations and the content of the texts and shedding some light on the concrete interactions between engravers, university circles, authors, and publishers in the early German Enlightenment. The book shows how the integration of usually separate research fields (clandestine literature, anonymity, ‘street literature’, philosophical dialogue) and the attention to social groups placed at the fringe of the ‘established’ German academic milieus (students, engravers) could contribute to the telling of several vicissitudes of the German Enlightenment from a new perspective.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
