The project pursues a historical and a theoretical objective. First, it aims at giving a comprehensive analysis of (Western) European early modern drama as the first phenomenon of mass media in human history. Second, it aims at exploring the explanatory value of the metaphor of culture as a net. In that period, drama as performance casts the basis of modern mass media; it establishes for the first time in human history the cultural practice of a public visual culture that is not bound to ritual patterns and the ensuing constraints. In terms of theory, the project will investigate the productivity of the metaphor of culture as a net. A net is a non-hierarchical structure without a centre. There is no entelechical form of a net. Nets are never complete. Nets may thus extend and branch out to regions which are completely unknown to those who set them up initially. Since they are constructed by humans, nets are subject to human will as to their transport capacity. Material may be allowed to float freely or it may be submitted to scrutiny. The control logic may be belief-driven, power-driven or money-driven. The floating material may circulate in different degrees of formal organization. The outlined approach will open up perspectives for investigating European drama beyond the boundaries of national cultures. Transculturality will thus be considered to be the standard case, while nationality of cultural artefacts will be considered the particular case. Common traits between texts/ cultural artefacts stemming from different eras or from different areas will no longer be difficult to explain. Reception in later times or in other regions can be accounted for with regard to the aforementioned three basic control mechanisms. Basic formal standards, whose accomplishment can be observed in all European national cultures, can be explained as a floating of material at differing levels of formal organization.