Thesis (Ph. D.)--Princeton University, 2003. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 239-262).

Ondřej Podavka Zdeněk Brtnický of Waldstein and his diary from the years 1597−1603 (Abstract) The subject of the doctoral thesis is an in many aspects noteworthy personality of Moravian aristocrat Zdeněk Brtnický of Waldstein, one of the 30 directors in the era of rebellion of the estates. The dissertation focuses chiefly on the period of his and pre-university and university studies, for which the largest amount of the sources has been preserved, primarily his voluminous personal diary. Zdeněk Brtnický of Waldstein was born on 12 May 1582. In his very childhood he became an orphan - his father Henry Brtnický of Waldstein and on Sádek died already in 1589, followed by his wife and Zdeněk's mother Susanne Helt of Kement three years later. First place where Waldstein is known to have studied, is Lutheran noblemen's school in Velké Meziříčí, which was founded by Waldstein's grandmother Alena Helt of Kement, born Meziříčská of Lomnice. From 1592 to 1594 he studied in Jihlava, then he studied in Brzeg in Silesia for other two years and in the summer 1596, equipped with good Latin education, he moved on to Strasbourg, where he stayed for three years and attended academy. In the years 1599 he set out on the grand tour through the western and southern Europe. Having first stayed for a few weeks in Paris, he...

The Enlightenment did not end with the French Revolution but extended into the nineteenth century, effecting a transformation to modernity. By 1850, science became increasingly institutionalized and technology hastened transmission of cultural exchange. Restricting Enlightenment to solitary movements, philosophic text, or national contexts ultimately creates insular interpretations. The Enlightenment was instead a transnational phenomenon, of interconnected communities, from diverse geographical and cultural spaces. A revealing example is the Delessert family. Their British-Franco-Swiss network demonstrates the uniqueness, extent, and duration of the Enlightenment. This network’s origins lie in the 1680s. French and British desires for stability resulted in contrasting policies. Toleration, through partial rights, let British Dissenters become leading educators, manufacturers, and natural philosophers by 1760. Conversely, Huguenots were stripped of rights. Thousands fled persecution, and France’s rivals profited by welcoming waves of industrious Huguenots. French refugee communities became vital printing centres, specializing in Enlightenment attacks on the Ancien régime, and facilitated the expansion of the Delessert network. The Delessert banking family made a generational progression from Geneva to Lyon to Paris, linking them to Jean-Jacques Rousseau. His friendship fostered passions for botany and education. The Delesserts parlayed this into participation in Enlightenment science and industry, connecting them to the Lunar Society, Genevan radicals, and British reformers. By 1780, a transition toward modernity began. Grand Tours shifted from places of erudition to practical sites of production. Lunar men sent sons to the Continent for practical education, as Franco-Swiss visited English manufactories and Scottish universities to expand knowledge. Moderates greeted the French Revolution with enthusiasm. In the early 1790s this changed significantly. Royalist mobs threatened Lunar men, destroying property, in Birmingham. In France, moderates tried to defend the monarchy from republican mobs. Even so, the network, fragmented both by revolution and war, continued espousing reform and assisting members who were jailed, endangered, or escaping to America. The Delessert network reconnected in 1801. Franco-Swiss toured Britain as Britons visited Paris, gathering at the hôtel Delessert, a crossroads of the Enlightenment. New societies encouraged science, industry, and philanthropy. Enlightenment exchange continued, despite warfare, into the nineteenth century. Industrial partnerships and scientific collaborations, formed during the peace, circumvented trade barriers. Over three generations (1760-1850) cosmopolitanism helped usher in a transition to modernity. Ultimately, the Delessert network’s endurance challenges traditional interpretations of the Enlightenment, and the Industrial Revolution.