01/07/2026 09:00 - 12:20

HALL: Pola - A101

Contact: Garzaniti M.

Chair: Kontouma V., Makrides V.

The Republic of Letters represented a complex network of intellectuals, scholars, and writers that formed in the West during the modern age. It was a space for dialogue, but also for controversy, characterised by strong personalities and intense personal ties, capable of going beyond traditional institutions or making use of newly established academies, transcending national borders and even overcoming confessional divisions, without forgetting them. This self-proclaimed intellectual community mainly included the Catholic and Reformed Protestant worlds in Western and Central Europe. The classical world played a prominent role in the Republic of Letters, encompassing not only the pagan tradition but also early Christianity, which helped create the very idea of classicism, now applicable to modern times as well. This era witnessed the development of the study of ancient sources and texts, which appears to be closely linked to the birth of modern philology and the knowledge of languages not only from the classical world, but also from the sacred scriptures. The development of classical philology was accompanied by biblical and patristic studies, with the birth of modern criticism. The Republic of Letters spread throughout the European continent and beyond, and new research has made it possible to conceive of its decentralised history, which did not focus on Latin culture and scholarship, but also on places, personalities, and texts from Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the Middle East. Today, it is important to integrate the Western context of the Republic of Letters with the roles of diasporas from Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the Middle East, which interacted with Western actors and cultural circles. This approach goes beyond the traditional frameworks of national historiography, shedding new light on the intellectual history of Europe as a whole, beyond linguistic, geographical, religious, and cultural segmentation.