So-called West Prussia was a cultural landscape in its own right. In the age of nationalism it was the subject of culture-political disputes between Germany and Poland, and in the early modern age it represented a paradigmatic instance of the co-existence of different nations, confessions, and ethnic groups. The intellectual centres (Danzig, Elbing, Thorn) were melting-pots of heterogeneous traditions and scenes of multi-cultural milieus, and it was this that made them attractive to writers and scholars like Martin Opitz. In this volume, specialists from a variety of disciplines supply essential contributions toward a long-overdue culture-historical synopsis of this area.