Benjamin Schultze’s Dialogue Book on Madras

Benjamin Schultze’s conversation book was originally written in Telugu and English in Madras/India between 1730 and 1732 and appeared in 1750 in Halle/Germany in two printed versions, one only in German, the other only in English. Schultze’s The Large and Renowned Town of the English Nation is the subject of all contributions collected in the present volume: the editors asked researchers from different disciplines to critically engage with the early modern conversation book from the perspective of their own discipline, and their particular research interests. And, thus, almost three hundred years after a German Protestant Missionary in South India wrote a Telugu-English dialogue book, this volume brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars and engages them in a fruitful and complex exchange of ideas. Taken together the chapters combine to compose a landscape of geographical, historical, social, religious, biographical and linguistic perspectives and aspects, all held together and framed by the same source. The result is a journey around, about, and through, a unique cultural historical document and shows how it can open a field of conversation among scholars, which leads to original new research questions, and unexpected answers.