… who made up the Republic of Letters represented a range of social demographics characteristic of literate early modern society – not only philosophes and scientists, writers and playwrights, but also aristocrats, government officials, … ‘men of letters had been plucked from their solitary studies and thrust into the “whirlwind” of fine and fashionable society’ ( Daston 370) . What’s more, travel and letter writing combined contributed to the construction of a shared … in fact essential for support in meeting the right people to gain access to patronage and sponsorship from the elites of society, and help in avoiding censorship. 15 The Republic of Letters in its heyday from the late seventeeth century to …