The Antique and the Natural: Exploring the Eighteenth-Century Textual Network

This is the introduction to the special issue 'The Textual Network of Past and Nature: Intellectual Exchanges in Eighteenth-Century Britain' of the Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies. The articles of this volume show that in the long eighteenth century, interdisciplinary exchanges between scholars were facilitated and encouraged by the tightly knit textual network of past and nature, of which their works were part. The mechanics of this network are explored from different angles, raising fundamental questions of interdisciplinarity, diachronic influences and auctoritas.