Karl Graf Zinzendorf - Band 2

The total series of diaries written by Count Karl von Zinzendorf (1739-1813) is preserved in the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Vienna, and covers more than sixty years. So far, scholars have had no direct access to these complex diaries except through wearisome investigations of the originals or through fragments of mostly amateurish editions. It is the first time that a complete text of the diaries is to be published. The entries, all written in French, give evidence of Zinzendorf`s stupendous variety of interests and of his great versatility and dexterity in perceiving, observing and judging persons and situations, and of his great skill in crossing geographical spaces, real and virtual. The information is very dense and precise and reflects the high degree of introspection and self-observation which are characteristic of the writer. It is the editors` aim to facilitate the access to the diaries and their utilization not by presenting a selection, but a complete text. For this purpose, they have developed special criteria for the transcriptions. It is assumed that such an edition will satisfy present research demands and stimulate new research. In this sense, the edition constitutes a contribution to long-term basic research in 18th century studies. The complete transcriptions of the diaries kept by Zinzendorf as governor of the multi-ethnic free port of Trieste, 1776 to 1782, are contained in two volumes (vol. 2 and 3 of the edition). Vol. 2, presented here, covers the period of May 31, 1776, his departure from Vienna, to December 31, 1778, vol. 3 the period of January 1, 1779 to February 11, 1782, his return to Vienna. The division is due only to practical considerations. As far as Trieste is concerned, main contents of this volume are the deregulation of transport by land and by sea and of the production and sale of consumer goods, the beginnings of the new road construction, the re-establishment of the Latin grammar school, the intensification of pastoral activities, the expansion of port facilities and attempts to establish a cataster. From December 1777 to May 1778 in Vienna, he secures support for his government in audiences of the rulers, in official and inofficial meetings with ministers and members of the high bureaucracy and in aristocratic salons, and witnesses the outbreak of the War of the Bavarian Succession. In September 1778, he is the first civilian to accompany the responsible engineer on the newly built road leading through the Croatian Military Boarder to the Adriatic. Aside from the rising free port of Trieste and the metropolis Vienna, Venice stands out as a major city of tourism and entertainment, while Carinthia, Carniola, Istria and the Croatian military border offer insights into backstages of the European enlightenment. The geographical horizons of the diaries are not restricted to Europe, but also comprise Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. The transcriptions also contain the annual lists of correspondence which, so far, have escaped researchers` attention. The text of the transcriptions is not accompanied by extensive footnotes referring to source material spread over many countries but instead is complemented by a comprehensive index (volume 4 of the edition) which includes a glossary and translations of Latin, Greek, dialect and obsolete words. It covers the extraordinary number of personal and geographical names and the highly differentiated spheres of topics and reading material which includes word-by-word citations extracted from scientific publications, newspapers, magazines, novels and poetry. Volume 1 of the edition is conceived as an individual monography and as such serves as an introduction to the edition.