The Republic of Letters And the Levant

The Republic of Letters was a name given to scholars in correspondence with each other, exchanging information about learning, that began with Renaissance humanists and died out after the French Revolution, when the term republic left a bloody taste in the mouths of the elite. Here scholars of the various humanities document some of the links between the visible area of the Levant and the invisible Republic of Letters in Europe. Some of those links involve Europeans writing to each other about the Levant or themes connected to it while others are writings from the Levant itself or are establishing relations with residents or travelers there who could help in collecting manuscripts, artefacts, and antiquities. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Alastair Hamilton is Professor Emeritus of the History of the Radical Reformation at the University of Amsterdam, the C. Louise Thijssen-Schoute Professor of the History of Ideas at Leiden University, and the Arcadian Visiting Research Professor at the School of Advanced Study, London University, attached to the Warburg Institute. Maurits van den Boogert is researcher at Leiden University, and is currently working on Ottoman miscellaneous manuscripts.Bart Westerweel is Professor Emeritus of Early Modern English Literature at Leiden University.