A conversazione is a "social gathering [predominantly] held by [a] learned or art society" [2] for conversation and discussion, especially about the arts, literature, medicine, and science. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
The writer Horace Walpole is credited with the first recorded English use of conversazione in a letter written (from Italy) on 11 November 1739 to Richard West (1716–1742) in which he writes, "After the play we were introduced to the assembly, which they [viz., the Italians] call the conversazione". [11] [12]
In Italy, the term generally refers to a gathering for conversation; and was first used in English to identify the sort of private social gathering more generally known today as an "At Home". [13]
In England, however, it soon came to be far more widely used to denote the gatherings of a far more intellectual character and was applied in the more specific sense of a scientific, artistic, or literary assembly/soirée, [14] generally held at night. [15] [16] [17]
In its report on the first conversazione ever conducted by the Lambeth Literary Institution (on 22 June 1836), The Gentleman's Magazine noted that,
According to Yeates (2018):
The arts-oriented social media website Conversazione.org takes its name from the English meaning. [22]