The Enlightenment had its own internet: The Republic of Letters

There was no internet during the Enlightenment, but something surprisingly similar did exist in the 17th and 18th centuries. This was the Republic of Letters: a virtual, global community of scientists and intellectuals who exchanged information using the fastest technology available at the time — the postal service.

The clue is in the name: letters tied this self-proclaimed, transnational society together. Lots of letters. What this “metaphysical republic” lacked in speed, it made up for in volume. Take Leibniz and Voltaire, for example. In their lifetimes, these great minds wrote close to 15,000 letters each, sending them to hundreds of correspondents across all of Europe.

Ignatius Loyola managed only 9,000 letters, but the founder of the Jesuit order cast his intellectual net much wider. While Leibniz and Voltaire largely limited their correspondence to Europe, Loyola had pen pals from Mexico to Macau, thanks to a global network of Catholic missionaries and other like-minded co-religionists.

This network linking thousands of scientific and philosophical letter writers had a universal protocol: Experiment — not authority — should be the basis for factual knowledge. The network not only spread this ideal but also its fruits: Biological, geological, and astronomical observations from all around the world made their way back to the studies of Europe’s most learned men (and the occasional woman), and eventually into their pamphlets and books.

Leave a Comment