Confessional Cross-Pollination: Basel Humanists as Suppliers of Lutheran and Catholic Exempla

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I found the article fascinating and original. I recommend publication without significant revisions.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Excellent quality.

Author Response

I very much appreciate Reviewer 1's positive reception of this article. Since Reviewer 1 did mark under "Quality of English Language" "Minor editing of English language required," I have taken the opportunity to go through the article, editing the word choice and sentence structure to further enhance the clarity of the article's prose. Because Reviewer 1's "Comments on the Quality of English Language" simply read "Excellent quality," I have not edited the English extensively, choosing instead to refine those points in the manuscript where I saw small improvements could be made.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

This is a finely researched--and originally conceived study. Using new computerized tools for fields of digital humanities and corpus linguistics, the piece is able to uncover connections among texts that had not been possible before. This is especially helpful in making comparisons among Lutheran and Roman Catholic, collections of exempla, used in preaching. The the role of Reformed compilers as mediators between confessions has been obscured previously. But this new research indicates a constant 'borrowing' of materials  so that 'this  concurrent borrowing shows the crucial role of Swiss Reformed compilers such as Zwinger as mediators in the early modern media ecosystem.'

This significant research utilizes a 'new method for examining networks of citation, information exchange, and dissemination of religious messages across confessional traditions.' This is an important learning and provides a more exact assessment of the interplays among confessional boundaries and positions. Of related value is the recognition that 'Zwinger and Lycosthenes, from their position in the Swiss Reformed milieu of mid-sixteenth-century Basel, provided some of the narratives that would go on to shape both Lutheran and Catholic discourse for generations.

This paper is a splendid contribution on a number of levels.

Author Response

I very much appreciate Reviewer 2's positive assessment of this article on both the level of the article's argument and of its prose. Because Reviewer 2 has given no critical feedback, I have kept the article as-is following the minor English prose adjustments made in response to Reviewer 1. I truly appreciate both reviewers' encouraging words and faith in this article.