During the project’s first year, the research team identified and analysed key secondary literature addressing various aspects of the Enlightenment in the Croatian lands. Particular attention was paid to interpretative models and to assessing how Enlightenment thought has been received in existing historical, Croatological, and Italian studies.
A central point of reference was the concept of the European Enlightenment understood as a dynamic interplay between patriotism and cosmopolitanism. The researchers sought to apply this framework in their own case studies. This interpretative approach was originally articulated by the late Italian historian Franco Venturi and further developed by British intellectual historian John Robertson and Hungarian scholar of Enlightenment thought László Kontler, both of whom participated as invited speakers at the project workshop.
Ahead of the workshop, participants were provided with selected readings by these historians. This preparatory work resulted in a high standard of presentations and particularly fruitful discussions.
Reports on secondary literature, including annotated bibliographies that later evolved into survey articles, were presented at the first project workshop, What Is Enlightenment?, held on 28 November 2025 in Zagreb.
Conference papers delivered in English are available via the project’s Academia.edu profile.
Marta Jurković, (Re-)Mapping the Enlightenment in the Eastern Adriatic: Early Reflections and Research Pathways
Stipe Kljaić, Annual Report on Activities within the HRZZ Project LIGHT
Stipe Ledić, Croatian Enlightenment Thinkers Josip Keresturi and Maksimilijan Vrhovac Between Josephinism and the Estate System
Matea Marušić, Annotated Bibliography Report
Zrinko Novosel, Enlightenment Through the Reception and Modification of Public Law in the Hungarian Academia
Katja Radoš-Perković, The Idea of a Dalmatian Enlightenment in the Sources on Giulio Bajamonti
Teodora Shek Brnardić, The Venturian Enlightenment in Practice: Examples from Bohemian and Croatian Lands / Venturijevo prosvjetiteljstvo u praksi: primjeri iz Bohemije i hrvatskih zemalja
Goranka Šutalo, Varieties of Croatian Literary Enlightenment: Croatian Literature in the Habsburg Monarchy in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century
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