This volume explores engagement with Greco-Roman Antiquity across Europe and beyond in the 18th century. Approximately 100 experts, in some 140 articles from “Academy” to “Wallpaper”, show how Classical and rival antiquities were perceived and studied during the age of Enlightenment, revolution and scientific progress, and how they served the formulation and affirmation of new ideals. The survey covers the period between the outbreak of the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes in France in 1687 and the reorganization of Europe at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

Articles examine the spheres of society within which engagement with Antiquity took place in the 18th century, the specific subject areas in which it took place, and the media by which it was propagated. Reception of Antiquity in the 18th century was by no means limited to theoretical discourses. On the contrary, the period’s growing interest in sensuality and experience also required the relics of Antiquity and their modern echoes and evocations to be explored with all the senses. Focus therefore widened beyond the canonical bounds of reception in the spheres of culture, education, philosophy, religion, law and economics to encompass the perception of Antiquity in everyday and popular culture.