The volume traces the cognitive changes to which the understanding of literature was exposed from the late 16th century onwards. Engagement with the literature of antiquity was determined by the development of a philological form of criticism that was at odds with Christian apologetics in a time of confessional dissension. Seen thus, 'modern' literature from Opitz to Brockes appears as an integral part of a much more comprehensive culture of scholarly endeavour. The author paints a graphic picture of the unity and tensions evident in the European respublica litteraria of the early modern age, complete with the social and intellectual constants and upheavals it was also subject to.