"This book shows Christoph Martin Wieland's independent position in the literature and culture of around 1800 in a new way: Wieland's work describes a significant knowledge transfer between the Early Modern Age and the Modern Age. This is achieved by a double reference to the knowledge base of the Enlightenment on the one hand and to the philosophical and aesthetic tradition of antiquity on the other hand. The humanist-educated academic world, religion and the narrative and rhetorical situation of the collected knowledge develop - especially in the late works - into a productive tension with the processes of handing down the knowledge, the conveyance, reworking and translation of this knowledge as well as the dynamics of preservation and "modernization"."--Publisher's website.