Kein Schauplatz der Eitelkeiten

Das frühneuzeitliche Theatrum Praecedentiae zwischen gelehrtem Diskurs und sozialer Praxis

Abstract

Given the omnipresence of the theatre metaphor within the early modern literary market, the Zeremonialwisssenschaft does not constitute an exception. Focusing on two of the most prominent examples, Johann Christian Lünig’s Theatrum ceremoniale historico-politicum and Zacharias Zwantzig’s Theatrum Praecedentiae, this article investigates the inter-relation between academic discourse and social practices. Both authors do not cover their topic in a systematic way. They deliberately opt for a mere compilation of ceremonial descriptions and other heterogenous material which is roughly organized and subdivided into categories. For the authors this was probably the most adequate way of approaching their subject, having in mind the questionability of the cosmological concepts of order and the increasing disenchantment of ceremony in the 18th century. Thus, the theatre metaphor cannot only be read as a reminiscence of the baroque Theatrum Mundi, it also implied the idea of immediacy, while the referential function of ceremony was already fading into the background.