Proper noun
the Republic of Letters
(historical) The intellectual community in the late 17th and 18th centuries in Europe and the Americas, exchanging ideas by circulating handwritten letters.
A critic for the New-York Mirror wrote: "No man in the Republic of Letters has been more overrated than Mr. Washington Irving". Source: Internet
The Republic of Letters was the sum of a number of Enlightenment ideals: an egalitarian realm governed by knowledge that could act across political boundaries and rival state power. Source: Internet