The research project Between Knowledge and Ignorance is the first in Croatian historiography to place the Enlightenment at the center of interdisciplinary historical inquiry. It explores the Enlightenment as a complex intellectual and social phenomenon that reached its peak in the eighteenth century. The project aims to map and contextualize Enlightenment ideas and actors in Croatian lands and to critically assess their place within broader European and global historiography.

The project embraces an approach that understands the Enlightenment not as a uniform doctrine but as a constellation of debates, questions, and cultural practices shared—albeit diversely articulated—across Europe. What is considered “enlightened” in national contexts must be studied through the lens of transnational intellectual networks and the circulation of books, ideas, and knowledge.

The research is structured around three thematic pillars central to contemporary Enlightenment studies:

1. Catholic Enlightenment — Understood as a reform-oriented movement that sought to reconcile Catholic dogma with new developments in science and philosophy, using the language and tools of Enlightenment thought (Lehner, 2016).

2. Knowledge Circulation — Building on recent insights that treat knowledge as dynamic, socially embedded, and transformative, this theme avoids outdated center-periphery models and instead foregrounds local agency and interconnectedness (Östling & Heidenblad, 2023).

3. Enlightenment and Revolution — While revolutionary movements like the French Revolution did not directly unfold in Croatian lands, Napoleonic conquests brought its ideological legacy. This invites a reflection on how radical Enlightenment ideas were received, adapted, or resisted in local contexts (Israel, 2015).