Commonplace Learning

Dr Hotson works in the field of early modern European intellectual history, with particular attention to central Europe and the international Reformed world c.1550-1660. Thematically, he has written on the histories of science, philosophy, religion, education, and political theory and their relationship to broader social, political, and confessional developments. At the heart of his interests are the gradually expanding reform movements of the post-Reformation period culminating in the pansophism of Comenius, the universal reform programme of Samuel Hartlib, and the audacious philosophical projects of Leibnitz. Oxford University Press published his book on Alsted in 2000: Johann Heinrich Alsted 1588-1638: Between Renaissance, Reformation and Universal Reform: it received a wide range of excellent reviews.

Brilliantly written, perfectly constructed, Hotson's work reads like a novel...a rich and convincing panorama which will serve from this point onward as an indispensable landmark for all future research in a particularly elusive and complex field of study

• FIRST-GENERATION RAMISM ; 1. INTRODUCTION: THE EARLIEST GERMAN RAMISM ; i. Ramism in Germany: a neglected tradition ; ii. Ramism and Calvinism: an overworked explanation ; iii. The spread of Ramism in north-western Germany: a fresh start ; 2. FOUNDATIONS: RAMISM IN GERMAN CONTEXT, 1543-1600 ; i. The rudiments of Ramism ; ii. Ramism and humanism, c.1580-1600 ; iii. Ramism in Hanseatic cities and imperial counties ; SECOND-GENERATION SEMI-RAMISM ; 3. INSTITUTIONALISATION: SEMI-RAMISM IN REFORMED ACADEMIES, 1580-1600 ; i. Adaptation: the advent of Philippo-Ramism ; ii. Confessionalisation: Ramism and Calvinism revisited ; iii. Expansion: Ramism and the encyclopaedia ; 4. ADAPTATION: POST-RAMIST METHODS IN REFORMED UNIVERSITIES, 1590-1613 ; i. Beyond Philippo-Ramism: Casmann, Timpler, Keckermann, and Alsted ; ii. 'Methodical Peripateticism': Heidelberg and Keckermann's systema, 1590-1601 ; iii. Precursor to the Encyclopaedia: Danzig and Keckermann's Systema systematum, 1602-13 ; THIRD-GENERATION POST-RAMIST ECLECTICISM ; 5. COMPILATION: ALSTED'S CURSUS PHILOSOPHICI ENCYCLOPAEDIA, 1609-20 ; i. Form: the Encyclopaedia as systema systematum ; ii. Composition: the Encyclopaedia as bibliotheca universalis locorum communium ; iii. Matter: the Encyclopaedia as bibliotheca philosophica ; 6. CULMINATION: ALSTED'S ENCYCLOPAEDIA SEPTEM TOMIS DISTINCTA, 1620-30 ; i. Synthesis: the Encyclopaedia as systema harmonicum ; ii. Expansion: from Cursus philosophici encyclopaedia (1620) to Encyclopedia omnium disciplinarum (1630) ; iii. Dissolution: the Encyclopaedia as Farragines disciplinarum ; 7. INTERIM CONCLUSIONS ; i. Destruction and further ramification, 1622-70 ; ii. The common principles: means and ends of the German post-Ramist tradition ; SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY ; INDEX