From Wisdom to Knowledge: Bodies and Artificial Beauty in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

The Hannoverisches Intelligenzblatt, or “Hanover Intelligencer,” was an English-style advertising bulletin that published official notices such as court dates, bankruptcies, sales and leases, as well as marriages, births, and deaths. The term “intelligence” in this case had nothing to do with the readers’ mental faculties, but instead was used in the sense of news or information.¹ In 1756, the paper began publishing a supplement entitled Nützliche Sammlungen (UsefulMicellany), which included discussions of so-called exercises (Aufgaben). Some of these activities tested readers’ knowledge and others solicited their opinions. Sometimes the topics were socially relevant and other times less so. For example, they included the origins of proverbs, the preservation of food, how the forces of nature work, and—in the item on October 15, 1756—attitudes to makeup. “Is painting the face or the so-called application of rouge [Anlegen der rothen Schönfarbe] by the female sex sinful or not? To what degree is this comparable to the use of hair powder, and which is the worst offense [am strafbarsten]? [What is] the cause of this masquerading [Verlarvung]?”²