Literature is communication! The Early Modern Period, as an era of transition between the Middle Ages and Modernity, is characterized by comprehensive changes. But what significance does literature hold in this context? The new literary studies volume offers a well-founded and exciting introduction to the Early Modern Period, where literature was primarily an open communication system. The immediate encounter with the era: engaging with originals, understanding and misunderstanding early modern documents. The mediated access to the period: concepts of the era and its boundaries, research and impact history. The concept of literature in the early modern period: text and intertextuality, rhetoric and writing practices, author and media, genres and discourse on forms. "Ars hermeneutica" in concrete text analysis: knowledge transfer, religiosity, subjectivity and individuality, discourse of power, space.