Book History, History of Printing and Circulation of Knowledge in the Enlightenment

Projekt manager: Prof. Dr. Thomas Bremer

The research project mainly intends to examine the specific mechanisms of the distribution of literature and knowledge in the 18th century and is connected to the currently highly active discussion about the materiality of literature and knowledge. As Robert Darnton has already shown over twenty years ago, the analysis of book and printing history often results in a completely new look at 18th-century texts, not least in terms of the dimension of the "Business of Enlightenment".

The current research focuses most of all on the question of the distribution of Enlightenment literature in Spain and Portugal (among other things, secret booksellers), on the question of the translation and reception of French Enlightenment literature in the Iberian Peninsula, in Latin America and in Germany, as well as on the reception of Iberian Enlightenment literature in Germany. This project also takes into account the concrete question book design, the relationship between text and image, and the respective national peculiarities of book production.