Meelis Friedenthal presents a working paper on 'Political, philosophical and theological background(of the Swedish Universities)'

The general aim of the project is to give an overview of the intellectual tradition of the universities of Uppsala, Tartu, Turku, Greifswald and Lund that all fell into the boundaries of the Swedish Empire (1611-1721). The main sources for the study are the disputations that were presented both for examination and for obtaining an academic degree in the universities and the sources that were cited in these disputations. Taking the ideas about soul and immaterial substances as a starting point the project is going explore the intellectual developments in the Swedish universities of the 17th century and compare these to the developments in the German cultural space, mainly looking at a) the reception of new philosophical ideas; b) connection between pneumatology and discussion about witchcraft and magic; c) attitudes towards Pietism.

Gábor Gángó presents a working paper on 'The Election Campaign of the Count Palatine Philipp Wilhelm von Neuburg for the Crown of Poland and the Genesis of Leibniz’s Specimen Polonorum'

This study is a chapter from my planned book on Leibniz on the Polish royal election in 1669. On the basis of extended research in the family archives of the German candidate for the Crown of Poland, I reconstruct the wider diplomatic context of Leibniz’s early political treatise. The surviving testimonies of the writing process not only enable us to define the time of the genesis of the treatise with more precision than it was before but they also challenge our belief on Leibniz’s exclusive authorship by testifying a close collaboration between the young Leibniz and his mentor and friend, the Baron Johann Christian von Boineburg.

Martin Mulsow presents a working paper on 'Amsterdam's Secret. Politics, Alchemy and the Commodification of Knowledge in the 17th Century'

In August 1688, duke Frederik I. of Saxe-Gotha dissappeared for a stay in Amsterdam. What did he do there? He arranged a selling of wood from the Thuringian Forest to the Dutch - officially -, but more secretly he negotiated with the French about renting his troops to them, and even more secretely he conducted alchemical experiments in order to transform base metals into gold. His hope was to get a lot of gold to rent even more troops, and through the avails to be able to enlarge the territory of his small state. I reconstuct the story of Frederik's Amsterdam sojourn to give an impression of the commodification of knowledge in an early knowledge society such as the Netherlands. Alchemists sold their secret skills to princes. How did this shadow marked function? What was the alchemical milieu in Amsterdam in the late 17th century?