The Project
Our project investigates Swiss-British relations in the 17th and early 18th centuries. We are creating a database supplemented by a number of case studies, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of early modern networks of knowledge and exchange. Our project is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (project number 100011-215254) and will run until May 2027.
The database which is at the heart of this project is created in collaboration with hallerNet at the University of Bern, a well-established ego-network in the process of expanding into a more comprehensive network of knowledge. The database will collect, and provide access to documents such as letters, friendship albums, travel accounts and theological writings which enhance our understanding of transnational connections. There will be an emphasis on themes that are particularly central to Swiss-British relations, such as theology, natural philosophy and science as well as literature in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Our case studies emerging from this collection focus on particularly well-networked individuals (such as Johann Jacob Frey in the early 17th century and Caspar Wettstein in the 18th century) and genres of key importance for cultural exchange such as travel literature and devotional literature. The database will be interoperable and designed to be expanded in order to facilitate further research. Recent developments in the Digital Humanities have provided new tools for the investigation of transnational relations in Europe. SwissBritNet brings the Swiss perspective to this context, improving our knowledge of the historical dimension of processes of cultural exchange. Our work on the database and case studies is supplemented with the creation of stories showing the variety of Swiss-British relations as well as with university courses, workshops and conferences.
