This course point of departure is present research methodologies that emphasize the history of knowledge in its wider sense as a framework that includes both the history of science and philosophy within its larger social and cultural context. “Institutions of Knowledge” are widely understood here, beginning with their material-institutional aspect (Universities, Libraries, Saloons, Labs, etc.,) through more abstract issues, such as disciplinary division of knowledge, efforts of censorship and control, centers of translation and dissemination of knowledge. Network theories will be part of the description, both as a technological tool and leading metaphor for describing complex communication-relations between individuals and groups. What was used by sociologists and historians for the description of all forms of social communication is understood here to be even more relevant when it comes to communities of knowledge in their varies descriptions (textual communities, hermeneutic communities, etc.). Historically major part of the course will concentrate on late medieval and early modern European society, examining modernization and secularization processes at the age of scientific revolution, to follow the formation of some basic institutions that are influential in contemporary culture as well.