Winckelmann had read Homer, Herodotus, Sophocles, Xenophon, and Plato, but he found at Nöthnitz the works of such famous Enlightenment writers as Voltaire and Montesquieu.
Winckelmann havde læst Homer, Herodot, Sofokles, Xenophon, og Platon, men her fandt han også værker af oplysningstidens lærde som Voltaire og Montesquieu.