Europäische Aufklärung zwischen Wien und Triest: Die Tagebücher des Gouverneurs Karl Graf von Zinzendorf 1776-1782

This edition contains a comprehensive transcription of the diary which Karl von Zinzendorf (1739–1813) kept as governor of Trieste from 1776 to 1782. The complete diary, which covers the period from his Saxon childhood to his death as imperial minister in Vienna, is renowned for the regularity of its entries as well as the acute observations and critical self-reflection of the author. In Trieste, which enjoyed the privileges of a free port beginning in 1719, the governor pursued new paths of economic liberalism. Being a religious convert himself, he procured as early as 1778 free public worship for the Lutherans, similar to what the Jewish, Greek-Orthodox and Armenian residents there enjoyed. The diary gives ample evidence of Zinzendorf’s travels outside of Trieste, including to Venice, Gorizia, Carinthia, Istria and the Croatian military border. In Vienna, the governor frequented the salons of the cosmopolitan nobility where discussions occurred on politics, finances and world affairs such as the American Revolution and the voyages of James Cook. At court, he appeared in audience before Maria Theresa and Joseph II to receive their decisions on matters of state; and in the ministries, he met high-ranking bureaucrats instrumental in planning and executing the great reforms of the Enlightenment. Thus the reader can follow the interplay of political and economic forces from the local levels to the central institutions in Vienna. Equally, the diary holds rich insights into contemporary social and cultural practices such as reading, letter-writing, conversation, theatre and music, card-playing, riding and walking, friendship and, last but not least, love affairs. The accompanying index contains about 12,000 entries which elucidate the names of persons and geographical places, the titles of books, pamphlets, newspapers and journals, theatre pieces, operas and ballets, and relevant terms of politics, economy, navigation, technology, the arts and sciences, and religion. An introductory section, which constitutes a monograph of its own, surveys selected topics in the diary that until now has never been explored systematically