The volume contains the proceedings of a conference of the German and Italian Societies for Research into the 18th Century. They range from the Latin-based scholarship of the early 18th century to late-Enlightenment engagement with issues posed by the natural sciences and the theory of culture. The first section "Contacts" is comparative in its approach, dealing with such things as correspondence, change of location, change of context, national standpoints in the evaluation of literature, contrastive scholarly ideals, translations. The second section "Institutions" assembles studies on academicism in opera and drama, the institutionalization of scholarship in academies, and the dissemination of scholarly work by the agency of printers and publishers.