Obligation, expectation, and the material traces of intellectual community in northern Germany around 1700: reflections on Martin Mulsow’s Knowledge Lost

Abstract

Martin Mulsow's Knowledge Lost provides a window into the precarious world of intellectuals in northern Germany around 1700. This essay considers that book's place in Mulsow's work and in the intellectual history of radical enlightenment through the prism of contemporary activity in Hamburg and its surroundings, in particular as informed by the work of those who exchanged ideas most extensively with English intellectual culture. It suggests that themes of obligation and expectation as they emerge in dialogue with Mulsow's work might provide means to extend his consideration of the material culture of knowledge around 1700 and to reshape its engagement with religious orthodoxy.