[Universities and learned societies in the 17th century].

Abstract

This article questions the widely disseminated thesis that the rise of learned academies in Germany, as elsewhere, was a result of insufficient scholarly achievement on the part of the universities, particularly in the natural sciences. An examination of individual universities and professors, however, reveals that they were in fact receptive to modern scholarly advances, especially in medicine and natural sciences, and faithfully transmitted this knowledge to students. The second part of the paper examines the creation of the learned societies, which regarded themselves not as competitors with, but rather as extensions of the universities. They cultivated a culture of scholarly discourse distinct from that of the universities, embracing a collective search for knowledge rather than a battle for a monopoly on truth.