Description
Book SynopsisMore often than not, humanist, scholarly and 'scientific' correspondences from the early modern period have been analyzed from a rather narrow point of view. They were either exploited to reveal new biographical and historical evidence or assessed as literary achievements, as precious (or not so precious) pearls of artistic prose and composition. However legitimate such an outspokenly positivist and aesthetic approach may be, it does not exhaust the various possibilities for historical and literary study that early modern correspondences offer. It may, for instance, be doubted whether the traditional approach enables us to address, let alone to answer, one of the key questions that can and should be raised when dealing with letter writing in early modern times: how did the genre function as a social practice? This question can be reformulated as follows: who was writing, what, for whom, and why? At first glance, many, if not most, of the correspondences seem to have functioned as a means to discuss business and family affairs, to express friendship (and, to a lesser extent, love), or to communicate scholarly information. If we scrutinize them more carefully, however, we will discover that epistolary exchange was far more signicifant and played a far more crucial role than this superficial enumeration of topics to be found in early modern correspondences would make us believe. It can indeed be argued that many humanists and other intellectuals wrote letters in order to define themselves as literators, scholars, or scientists. In other words, letters were used as a means of self-presentation and social identification. It is through letters that literators, scholars, and scientists presented a particular, quite often highly apologetic, self-image which they wanted to be divulged and perpetuated. It is through letters, moreover, that literators, scholars, and scientists defined themselves as belonging to a specific group of people who shared the same interests and ideals, and were engaged in similar endeavours. Although these issues have not been entirely neglected by scholars in the past, this book brings together philologists, literary historians and historians of ideas to reflect upon the phenomenon of letter writing, and concentrates on four particular issues: the rhetoric of letter writing, friendship and patronage, criticism and libel, reputation and fame. Moreover, particular attention has been given to the functioning of letter writing as a means of self-presentation and social identification, linking together more closely text and context, literature and society.
Table of ContentsIntroduction Toon Van Houdt & Jan Papy PART I: The Rhetoric of Letter Writing Judith Rice Henderson Humanist Letter Writing: Private Conversation or Public Forum? Charles Fantazzi Vives versus Erasmus on the Art of Letter Writing Christine Benevent Erasme en sa correspondance: conquete(s) et defaite(s) du langage Tim Markey Style and Tradition in Ben Jonson's Verse Epistles Kristine Haugen Imaginary Correspondence: Epistolary Rhetoric and the Hermeneutics of Disbelief PART II: Friendship and Patronage Warren V. Boutcher Literature, Thought or Fact? Past and Present Directions in the Study of the Early Modern Letter Jacqueline Glomski Careerism at Cracow: The Dedicatory Letters of Rudolf Agricola Junior, Valentin Eck, and Leonard Cox (1510-1530) Mark Morford Lipsius' Letters of Recommendation Elisabet Goransson Letters, Learning and Learned Ladies. An Analysis of Otto Sperling, Jr.'s (1634-1715) Correspondence with Scandinavian Women Part III: Exchanging Letters in the Republic of Letters Henk J.M. Nellen In Strict Confidence: Grotius' Correspondence with his Socinian Friends Corinna Vermeulen Strategies and Slander in the Protestant Part of the Republic of Letters: Image, Friendship and Patronage in Etienne de Courcelles' Correspondence Antonio Iurilli La crisi del sapere rinascimentale in un carteggio italiano di primo Settecento PART IV: 'Programming', criticizing and libelling Erika Rummel Argumentis, non contumeliis: The Humanistic Model for Religious Debate and Erasmus' Apologetic Letters Jane Griffiths The Grammarian as 'Poeta' and 'Vates': Self-Presentation in the Antibossicon Iordan Avramov Letter Writing and the Management of Scientific Controversy: The Correspondence of Henry Oldenburg (1661-1677) PART V: Literary Fame and Scientific Reputation Karl A. E. Enenkel Die Grundlegung humanistischer Selbstprasentation im Brief-Corpus: Francesco Petrarcas Familiarium rerum libri XXIV Lisa Jardine Before Clarissa: Erasmus, 'Letters of Obscure Men', and Epistolary Fictions Edward V. George Conceal or Disclose? The Limits of Self-Representation in the Letters of Juan Luis Vives Philip J. Ford Self-Presentation in the Published Correspondence of George Buchanan Adam Mosley Tycho Brahe's Epistolae Astronomicae: A Reappraisal Index nominum
