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Networks of Trust: Scholarly Correspondence and Scientific Exchange in Early Modern Europe

Faculty for History, Philosophy and Theology, University of Bielefeld, Universitätsstraße 25, Postfach 10 01 31, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany

This essay examines the practices of networking among the erudite in late medieval and carly modern Europe. The building up of trust among individuals was sought through the channel of friendship, the most important form of sociability among the learned. This came to be the basis for an all-encompassing form of scientific exchange that took place through the medium of personal correspondence. How did bonds of friendship come to be created? How were these sustained over long distances within a society of limited mobility? What was the role of the exchange of gifts in these processes which, taking a cue from Pierre Bourdieu, could be designated as an 'economy of faith and trust'?

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