German-Language Review Journals of the 18th Century
Mirrors of Intellectual Life in the Age of Enlightenment
The review journals of the 18th century, known as Ephemeriden or learned papers, offer an almost complete reflection of the intellectual life of their time. Including book reviews covering all fields of knowledge, reports on scientific discoveries and projects, news from scholarly institutions, and personal updates from the world of education, they provide an almost inexhaustible resource for the history of science in the 18th century and for understanding the reception of Enlightenment thought.
Between 1987 and 2007, the Rezensionsindex research centre systematically analysed key interdisciplinary Ephemeriden from the 18th century, thereby documenting the discourse of the Enlightenment period as it crossed the boundaries of all academic disciplines. In addition to insights into the state and development of individual disciplines in the humanities and natural sciences, the project offered a deeper understanding of the Enlightenment era itself.
The data collected up to the completion of the indexing work (approximately 75,000 reviews from 65 review journals and newspapers from the years 1700 to 1784) have been accessible via the centre’s interactive database since spring 2008.