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Christoph Pfautz as a Reviewer for the Acta Eruditorum: the Invention of a German Tradition in the Sciences

  • Mattia Brancato

In 1682, Otto Mencke and Christoph Pfautz founded the Acta Eruditorum, the first fully-fledged German scientific journal. In this paper, I argue that this journal had a fundamental role in shaping the narrative on the rise of the new science in the 17th century, placing Germany as the ideal intermediary between tradition and innovation. In particular, Pfautz’s review of Newton’s Principia in the Acta Eruditorum initiated the Leibniz-Newton controversy, which forced the German tradition to reconsider its role and reshape its philosophical foundations to appeal to a wider international audience.

  • Keywords:
  • Pfautz,
  • Leibniz,
  • Newton,
  • reviews.,
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Mattia Brancato

Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-2325-8077

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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Christoph Pfautz as a Reviewer for the Acta Eruditorum: the Invention of a German Tradition in the Sciences

Authors

Mattia Brancato

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0573-3.02

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2025

Copyright Information

© 2025 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Philosophical Reviews in German Territories (1668-1799)

Book Subtitle

Volume 1

Editors

Marco Sgarbi

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

162

Publication Year

2025

Copyright Information

© 2025 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0573-3

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0572-6

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0573-3

eISBN (epub)

979-12-215-0574-0

Series Title

Knowledge and its Histories

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