This volume puts the polycentric structure of Europe with its heterogeneous cultural and linguistic areas, its tendencies towards integration and isolation and exclusion to the test. His contributions deal with focal points of cultural encounters: cities and states, social (court and salon) as well as religious spaces. They take into account the international cultural exchange at the military level and the transfer of science as well as the identity-creating importance of the genres epic and novel. Other contributions reflect tendencies of national demarcation and prestige thinking by rulers as well as the disregard for the margins with the cultural exclusion of the "savages" of Europe (Corsicans, Sardinians, Lappen), which finds expression in various media (song, architecture, art). Finding an identity in modern Europe ultimately includes interaction with the still unknown America as a promising meeting place through which Europeans also redefine themselves.