ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the idea of a nobilitas literaria spread in the Holy Roman Empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and how it was put into practice. It mentions a difference between French noblesse de robe and the nobilitas literaria of the Holy Roman Empire. The French noblesse de robe originated from the state, while the nobility offered by the doctoral degree was derived from the status awarded through each academic corporation. The Empire hosted one of the largest academic communities in Europe with more than 30 universities established by the year 1700. In the face-to-face societies of early modern Germany, the symbolic boundaries drawn by graduates or members of the universities had a considerable cultural impact. Within the contemporary discourse on nobilitas literaria the hybrid academic identity of scholars and nobles was also visualised in etchings and prints and in little paintings in students' alba amicorum'.
