Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft (1617–1680) Member Publication Patterns in the VD17

Abstract

This paper presents the first results of a larger project that draws on large-scale data analysis to investigate the publication patterns and networks of the 890 members of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft (1617–1680), or Fruitbearing Society, the first and largest cultural society in early modern Central Europe. First, we elucidate the major steps, including data wrangling, evaluation, clean-up, and algorithmic enrichment, necessary to transform the already high-quality VD17 bibliographic database into research data. Then, we relate the first results of our investigation of the publication patterns of Society members over time. This analysis brings more nuance to the existing narrative of a society that shifted from focusing on the literary and linguistic aspects of its agenda in the first period (1617–1650) to a more courtly one in the later periods (1651–1662/67) of its existence