Christa Lundberg: "What the History of Plagiarism Tells Us About Knowledge"

Abstract

In the late seventeenth century, European scholars began to devote sustained attention to plagiarism. This seminar takes as its starting point Jacob Thomasius’s De plagio litterario (1673), one of the earliest systematic treatises on plagiarism. Thomasius sought to define plagiarism and explain precisely why it was wrong. He also compiled an extensive catalogue of alleged cases and considered how plagiarists might best be identified and judged. In this way, he reframed plagiarism as a problem for the wider Republic of Letters rather than merely a grievance between individual authors. Examining his methods of detection, the ethics of accusation, and his proposals for collective oversight, I will explore the emergence of what might be called a scholarly hunt for plagiarists.

The paper presents the first case study of a larger project on plagiarism and knowledge in early modern Europe. Moving outward from Thomasius, I will reflect on what the history of plagiarism might reveal about changing attitudes towards tradition and originality, the media and infrastructures through which knowledge circulated, and the self-regulation of scholarly communities.