Oratio de Nationalismo (1717): Reconstructing the Earliest Known Written Use and Critique of Nationalism

The Oratio de Nationalismo Prorectoralis Oratio habita ad Academiam Fridericianam in die VII mensis Novembris MDCCXVII , by Johann Peter von Ludewig, represents one of the earliest—if not the earliest—documented uses of the term nationalism (in its Latin form Nationalismus ), and notably, it appears in a critical context. In a university environment shaken by nationalist tensions, von Ludewig uses the term nationalism as a pejorative label to describe a disintegrative, antimeritocratic ideology and a source of civil disorder, fundamentally opposed to the universalism of science. This edition presents the key extracts of the original Latin text alongside an English translation, complemented by a historical‐critical introduction and a methodological apparatus. The work seeks to contribute to the understanding of the conceptual origins of nationalism and to foster reflection on its cultural and ideological evolution.