Historical-Critical Edition of the correspondence of Christian Thomasius (1655–1728)

The correspondence provides a multifarious picture of Thomasius as a university teacher in Leipzig and Halle, as a "manager of knowledge", a networker, and a thinker as controversial as combative, who took part in or even initiated important debates of his time. Such discussions involved scientific landscape of central Germany, the fundamental debates of the decades around 1700, as well as radical changes in terms of mentalities, the history of ideas and the social context. In addition, the correspondence conveys information about the local history of Leipzig and Halle, about the various form of governance in Saxony and Brandenburg-Prussia and the effects of pan-European conflicts.

Among the 277 identified correspondents, big names of the early Enlightenment Res publica litteraria can be found, such as for example Samuel Pufendorf or - even if only a few letters - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Noteworthy is the correspondence between Thomasius and his patron Duke Moritz Wilhelm of Saxe-Zeitz, which extended over a period of 28 years. The fact that he had numerous contacts with pietists or representatives of nonconformist Protestant faiths is notable, such as for example with Friedrich Breckling, Gottfried Arnold or Pierre Poiret. A great part of the letters come from individuals who are hardly known today, such as pastors, teachers, lawyers and (former) students with whom he usually only exchanged one or very few letters. They address a wide range of topics from different areas of life, and thus scholarly practice can be observed in the variety of its everyday fields of activity. Thomasius communicated and acted on different levels, as teacher, legal advisor, administrative official, citizen and not least as a friend, who was considered as an accomplished interlocutor in the legal, theological, confessional, philosophical, scientific, and political fields.

The correspondence gathered here, which was scattered over numerous archives in Germany and abroad, is extending from 1679 to Thomasius' death in 1728; it consists of more than 1,200 letters that were either written by Thomasius himself or addressed to him. Two thirds of the manuscript letters come from Thomasius' estate; the rest is mostly the official correspondence with rulers, ministries or university bodies. A surprisingly large number of references to Thomasius' correspondence (in the form of notices or longer quotations) could be found in his own works, in other publications of the time, and in the correspondence of other scholars. Thanks to these testimonies, it is possible to close several gaps in the correspondence.