| Summary: | The study explores the role of Vienna as a major logistical and administrative hub of early
modern European warfare based on Johann Gottfried Leibniz’ correspondence with his
Vienna-based representative and informant, Johann Philipp Schmid. Schmid’s letters inform
about his cooperation with Bernhard Isenflamm, a regimental agent who supplied the
proprietors of regiments with news about military affairs in individually tailored, handwritten
newsletters. Isenflamm’s reports were compiled from German and Italian sources and Schmid
translated them into French. Schmid was an expert of transcribing, translating, and analysing
Old Medieval High German texts and his comments on the production of the news provide
unique insight into Isenflamm’s social and business life through the lens of a meticulous
philologist. Isenflamm brokered both with informational and financial resources and he
successfully bridged gaps in the multilingual governmental centre of the Habsburg composite
state. Nevertheless, his perceptivity to language preferences was potentially motivated not
purely by business interests, but by his confessional convictions, too. Isenflamm was part of a
network of Hallean Pietists and his efforts to communicate with his business partners in their
own languages could also be inspired by Hallean missions and translation projects.
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