The missing link in a European intellectual tradition
Recent scholarly work is shining light on the intellectual influence of Johann H. Bisterfeld during the student years of Gottfried Leibniz, one of central Europe’s greatest thinkers. The academic path delves into the possibility of placing the young mathematician and philosopher into a highly distinctive yet until now neglected central European intellectual tradition. However, study of the influence of Bisterfeld and his encyclopaedist father-in-law, Johann H. Alsted, on Leibniz is still missing a crucial link in the intellectual lineage — the latter’s final decade in Transylvania. Recently discovered knowledge points to Alsted’s role in preparing Bisterfeld’s works, which are recognised as having fired the imagination of young Leibniz. Although many of these findings are already sketched out in Hungarian, they need to be reworked in English to render them accessible to international scholarship and groups responsible for driving forward research in this field. The EU-funded project 'Alsted in Transylvania, 1629-1638: the missing link in a major European intellectual lineage' (Sedulitas) sought to situate Transylvania in this genealogy and thus connect east-central and west European scholarship. Project work intended to provide the missing link between central European reformed intelligentsia and Leibniz. Successes in this area would also serve to demonstrate how an expanded European Union can enrich Western scholarship and transform key elements of the region’s common intellectual heritage. Material from the original book was translated and reworked in its entirety in 2010 and 2011. Corresponding text editions have been produced and latest findings will be incorporated into new chapters for a final polished version to be submitted for publication in 2012 or 2013.
