Translations, Histories, Enlightenments ― William Robertson in Germany, 1760-1795

William Robertson - historian, minister, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh - was a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment whose influence reached well beyond the boundaries of the British Isles. In this reception study of Robertson's work, author Laszlo Kontler explores two ways that the transfer of ideas and pursuits undergirded Enlightenment intellectuals' self-conception: first, in a patriotic commitment to improvement and identity-building through cosmopolitanism, and second, via a commitment to progress and refinement realized through commerce, communication, and cultural exchange within an emerging European "commonwealth." Specifically, he shows how the reception of each of Robertson's four major histories (on national, European, and global themes) in Germany tests the possibilities and the limits of intellectual transfer through translation within the "republic of letters." To a remarkable extent, despite the apparent unity of the Enlightenment project's intellectual agenda, the questions that Robertson's German readers asked showed significant diversity and were highly contingent upon local and individual factors.

Laszlo Kontler is a Professor of History at the Central European University, Hungary. His book A History of Hungary (2006) has been translated into seven languages.