Book Description

The private library catalogue of a minor Greek scholar (Demetrios Darvaris, 1757-1821) serves as the starting point for discussing some central issues in the history of ideas in Europe in the turn of the 19th century. The author considers themes such as the “emergence of the author” and the socioeconomic conditions of intellectual activity, the classification of knowledge and the cognitive norms of modernity, the concepts of scientific originality and popularization of knowledge and the communication patterns of intellectual communities. The book stresses the importance of the “Enlightenments within the Enlightenment”, the dynamic of smaller intellectual communities within the context of the Greek Enlightenment and highlights the role of the Habsburg social and cultural context for the Balkan Enlightenments.