The House as Repository of Knowledge and Intercultural Transfers

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the house during the Romantic period as a site of intercultural transfer of knowledge. Hosting decentralized networks, the house functioned as a significant conduit in disseminating knowledge or creating new productions. The first part of the paper examines the opening of mummies by Professor Blumenbach as an example of how private collections were curated in several houses of the Fellows of the Royal Society. The second part presents an analysis of the role of the professorial house in Göttingen in transferring knowledge of Edward Jenner’s smallpox vaccination in Germany. The final example takes a closer look at a confluence of Anglo-Franco-German literature converging on Villa Diodati in 1816, showing how the famous villa is not a site of solitary creation as illustrated in prints of Byron and Villa Diodati, but the site of communal reading inspiring creativity.