Networks of Enlightenment : Digital Approaches to the Republic of Letters / Chloe Edmondson; Dan Edelstein

List of figures and tablesDan Edelstein and Chloe Summers Edmonson, Introduction: historical network analysis and social groups in the EnlightenmentI. Correspondence networksNicholas Cronk, Voltaire's correspondence network: questions of exploration and interpretationKelsey Rubin-Detlev and Andrew Kahn, Catherine the Great and the art of epistolary networkingCheryl Smeall, 'He belonged to Europe': Francesco Algarotti (1712-1764) and his European networksPierre-Yves Beaurepaire, The networks and the reputation of an ambitious Republican of Letters: Jacques de Perard (Paris, 1713-Stettin, 1766)II. Social networksChloe Summers Edmonson, Julie de Lespinasse and the 'philosophical' salonCharlotta Wolff, 'Un admirateur des philosophes modernes': the networks of Swedish ambassador Gustav Philip Creutz in Paris, 1766-1783Maria Teodora Comsa, Casanova's French networks: transitioning from a backstage coterie to the beau mondeIII. Knowledge networksMelanie Conroy, The eighteenth-century French academic networkMark Algee-Hewitt, The principles of meaning: networks of knowledge in Johnson's DictionarySummariesBibliographyIndex

While many periods of history are popularly known by their 'great men',the Enlightenment stands out for the prominence of its 'great groups'. This volume assemblesleading scholars using data-driven scholarship to study the networks that madethe Enlightenment possible, and contributed to creating a new sense of Europeanidentity. From Voltaire's correspondence with Catherine the Great, to AdamSmith's travels on the European continent, mediated and unmediatedcommunication networks were the lifeline of the Enlightenment. What is particularly notable about theEnlightenment is how these different networks were central to theirparticipants' identity. One could nottake part in the Enlightenment on one's own. Although some older historical studies highlightthe importance of social networks in the Enlightenment, data-driven approachesallow for a more comprehensive and granular understanding of the many differenttypes of networks that formed the intellectual and cultural infrastructure ofthe Enlightenment throughout Europe. The recent influx of metadata from thecorrespondences of major Enlightenment figures now allows scholars to studythese networks at both the micro and macro levels, and to explore the worlds ofthe philosophes and the "nodes" intheir networks in rich detail.It is at this intersection of Enlightenmenthistoriography, data capture, and social network analysis that the essayscollected in this volume all fall, taking advantage of new data sources,configurations, and modes of analysis to deepen our understanding of howEnlightenment sociability worked, who it included, and what it meant forparticipants.