A salon is a gathering of people held by a host. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to please or to educate" (Latin: aut delectare aut prodesse). Salons in the tradition of the French literary and philosophical movements of the 17th and 18th centuries are still being conducted.[1]
The salon first appeared in Italy in the 16th century, then flourished in France throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. It continued to flourish in Italy throughout the 19th century. In 16th-century Italy, some brilliant circles formed in the smaller courts which resembled salons, often galvanized by the presence of a beautiful and educated patroness such as Isabella d'Este or Elisabetta Gonzaga.
Salons were an important place for the exchange of ideas. The word salon first appeared in France in 1664 (from the Italian salone, the large reception hall of Italian mansions; salone is actually the augmentative form of sala, room). Literary gatherings before this were often referred to by using the name of the room in which they occurred, like cabinet, réduit, ruelle, and alcôve.[2] Before the end of the 17th century, these gatherings were frequently held in the bedroom (treated as a more private form of drawing room):[3] a lady, reclining on her bed, would receive close friends who would sit on chairs or stools drawn around.
This practice may be contrasted with the greater formalities of Louis XIV's petit lever, where all stood. Ruelle, literally meaning "narrow street" or "lane", designates the space between a bed and the wall in a bedroom; it was used commonly to designate the gatherings of the "précieuses", the intellectual and literary circles that formed around women in the first half of the 17th century. The first renowned salon in France was the Hôtel de Rambouillet not far from the Palais du Louvre in Paris, which its hostess, Roman-born Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet (1588–1665), ran from 1607 until her death.[4][5] She established the rules of etiquette of the salon which resembled the earlier codes of Italian chivalry.
In Britain, mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage is credited with introducing the scientific soirée, a form of salon, from France.[6] Babbage began hosting Saturday evening soirées in 1828.[7]
Studying the salon
The history of the salon is far from straightforward. The salon has been studied in depth by a mixture of feminist, Marxist, cultural, social, and intellectual historians. Each of these methodologies focuses on different aspects of the salon, and thus have varying analyses of its importance in terms of French history and the Enlightenment as a whole.
Major historiographical debates focus on the relationship between the salons and the public sphere, as well as the role of women within the salons.
Breaking down the salons into historical periods is complicated due to the various historiographical debates that surround them. Most studies stretch from the early 16th century up until around the end of the 18th century. Goodman is typical in ending her study at the French Revolution where, she writes: 'the literary public sphere was transformed into the political public'.[8] Steven Kale is relatively alone in his recent attempts to extend the period of the salon up until Revolution of 1848:[9]
A whole world of social arrangements and attitude supported the existence of French salons: an idle aristocracy, an ambitious middle class, an active intellectual life, the social density of a major urban center, sociable traditions, and a certain aristocratic feminism. This world did not disappear in 1789.[10]
Her contemporary Natalie Clifford Barney's handmade dinner place setting is on display at The Brooklyn Museum. Like Stein, she was also an author and American ex-pat living in Paris at the time, hosting literary salons that were attended by Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald as well. She bought a home with an old Masonic temple in the backyard which she dubbed Temple d’Amitié, the Temple of Friendship, for private meetings with attendees of her salons.
In 2018, Barnard College professor Caroline Weber's book “Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siècle Paris” was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize and was the first in-depth study of the three Parisian salon hostesses Proust used to create his supreme fictional character, the Duchesse de Guermantes.[11]
Contemporary literature about the salons is dominated by idealistic notions of politeness, civility and honesty, though whether they lived up to these standards is a matter of debate. These older texts tend to portray reasoned debates and egalitarian polite conversation.[12] Dena Goodman claims that, rather than being leisure based or 'schools of civilité', salons were at 'the very heart of the philosophic community' and thus integral to the process of Enlightenment.[13] In short, Goodman argues, the 17th and 18th century saw the emergence of the academic, Enlightenment salons, which came out of the aristocratic 'schools of civilité'. Politeness, argues Goodman, took second-place to academic discussion.[14]
"Abbé Delille reciting his poem, La Conversation in the salon of Madame Geoffrin" from Jacques Delille, "La Conversation" (Paris, 1812)
The period in which salons were dominant has been labeled the 'age of conversation'.[15] The topics of conversation within the salons - that is, what was and was not 'polite' to talk about - are thus vital when trying to determine the form of the salons. The salonnières were expected, ideally, to run and moderate the conversation (See Women in the salon). There is, however, no universal agreement among historians as to what was and was not appropriate conversation. Marcel Proust 'insisted that politics was scrupulously avoided'.[16] Others suggested that little other than government was ever discussed.[17] The disagreements that surround the content of discussion partly explain why the salon's relationship with the public sphere is so heavily contested. Individuals and collections of individuals that have been of cultural significance overwhelmingly cite some form of engaged, explorative conversation regularly held with an esteemed group of acquaintances as the source of inspiration for their contributions to culture, art, literature and politics, leading some scholars to posit the salon's influence on the public sphere as being more widespread than previously appreciated.[18][19]
The salon and the "public sphere"
Recent historiography of the salons has been dominated by Jürgen Habermas' work, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (triggered largely by its translation into French, in 1978, and then English, in 1989), which argued that the salons were of great historical importance.[19] Theaters of conversation and exchange – such as the salons, and the coffeehouses in England – played a critical role in the emergence of what Habermas termed the public sphere, which emerged in cultural-political contrast to court society.[20] Thus, while women retained a dominant role in the historiography of the salons, the salons received increasing amounts of study, much of it in direct response to, or heavily influenced by Habermas' theory.[21]
The most prominent defense of salons as part of the public sphere comes from Dena Goodman's The Republic of Letters, which claims that the 'public sphere was structured by the salon, the press and other institutions of sociability'.[18] Goodman's work is also credited with further emphasizing the importance of the salon in terms of French history, the Republic of Letters and the Enlightenment as a whole, and has dominated the historiography of the salons since its publication in 1994.[22]
Habermas' dominance in salon historiography has come under criticism from some quarters, with Pekacz singling out Goodman's Republic of Letters for particular criticism because it was written with 'the explicit intention of supporting [Habermas'] thesis', rather than verifying it.[23] The theory itself, meanwhile, has been criticized for a fatal misunderstanding of the nature of salons.[24] The main criticism of Habermas' interpretation of the salons, however, is that the salons of most influence were not part of an oppositional public sphere, and were instead an extension of court society.
This criticism stems largely from Norbert Elias' The History of Manners, in which Elias contends that the dominant concepts of the salons – politesse, civilité and honnêteté[25] – were 'used almost as synonyms, by which the courtly people wished to designate, in a broad or narrow sense, the quality of their own behavior'.[26] Joan Landes agrees, stating that, 'to some extent, the salon was merely an extension of the institutionalized court' and that rather than being part of the public sphere, salons were in fact in conflict with it.[27] Erica Harth concurs, pointing to the fact that the state 'appropriated the informal academy and not the salon' due to the academies' 'tradition of dissent' – something that lacked in the salon.[28] But Landes' view of the salons as a whole is independent of both Elias' and Habermas' school of thought, insofar that she views the salons as a 'unique institution', that cannot be adequately described as part of the public sphere, or court society.[29] Others, such as Steven Kale, compromise by declaring that the public and private spheres overlapped in the salons.[30] Antoine Lilti ascribes to a similar viewpoint, describing the salons as simply 'institutions within Parisian high society'.[31]
Debates surrounding women and the salon
Portrait of Mme Geoffrin, salonnière, by Marianne Loir (National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC)
When dealing with the salons, historians have traditionally focused upon the role of women within them.[32] Works in the 19th and much of the 20th centuries often focused on the scandals and 'petty intrigues' of the salons.[33] Other works from this period focused on the more positive aspects of women in the salon.[34] Indeed, according to Jolanta T. Pekacz, the fact women dominated history of the salons meant that study of the salons was often left to amateurs, while men concentrated on 'more important' (and masculine) areas of the Enlightenment.[35]
Historians tended to focus on individual salonnières, creating almost a 'great-woman' version of history that ran parallel to the Whiggish, male dominated history identified by Herbert Butterfield. Even in 1970, works were still being produced that concentrated only on individual stories, without analysing the effects of the salonnières' unique position.[36] The integral role that women played within salons, as salonnières, began to receive greater - and more serious - study in latter parts of the 20th century, with the emergence of a distinctly feminist historiography.[37] The salons, according to Carolyn Lougee, were distinguished by 'the very visible identification of women with salons', and the fact that they played a positive public role in French society.[38] General texts on the Enlightenment, such as Daniel Roche's France in the Enlightenment tend to agree that women were dominant within the salons, but that their influence did not extend far outside of such venues.[39]
It was, however, Goodman's The Republic of Letters that ignited a real debate surrounding the role of women within the salons and the Enlightenment as a whole.[40] According to Goodman: 'The salonnières were not social climbers but intelligent, self-educated, and educating women who adopted and implemented the values of the Enlightenment Republic of Letters and used them to reshape the salon to their own social intellectual, and educational needs'.[41]
Wealthy members of the aristocracy have always drawn to their court poets, writers and artists, usually with the lure of patronage, an aspect that sets the court apart from the salon. Another feature that distinguished the salon from the court was its absence of social hierarchy and its mixing of different social ranks and orders.[42] In the 17th and 18th centuries, "salon[s] encouraged socializing between the sexes [and] brought nobles and bourgeois together".[43] Salons helped facilitate the breaking down of social barriers which made the development of the enlightenment salon possible. In the 18th century, under the guidance of Madame Geoffrin, Mlle de Lespinasse, and Madame Necker, the salon was transformed into an institution of Enlightenment.[44] The enlightenment salon brought together Parisian society, the progressive philosophes who were producing the Encyclopédie, the Bluestockings and other intellectuals to discuss a variety of topics.
Salonnières and their salons: the role of women
At that time women had powerful influence over the salon. Women were the center of life in the salon and carried very important roles as regulators. They could select their guests and decide the subjects of their meetings. These subjects could be social, literary, or political topics of the time. They also served as mediators by directing the discussion.
The salon was an informal education for women, where they were able to exchange ideas, receive and give criticism, read their own works and hear the works and ideas of other intellectuals. Many ambitious women used the salon to pursue a form of higher education.[45]
Two of the most famous 17th-century literary salons in Paris were the Hôtel de Rambouillet, established in 1607 near the Palais du Louvre by the marquise de Rambouillet, where gathered the original précieuses, and, in 1652 in Le Marais, the rival salon of Madeleine de Scudéry, a long time habituée of the Hôtel de Rambouillet. Les bas-bleus, borrowed from England's "blue-stockings," soon found itself in use upon the attending ladies, a nickname continuing to mean "intellectual woman" for the next three hundred years.
Julie de Lespinasse: her chief draw was d'Alembert, but "though the name of M. d'Alembert may have drawn them thither, it was she alone who kept them there."
Some 19th-century salons were more inclusive, verging on the raffish, and centered around painters and "literary lions" such as Madame Récamier. After the shock of the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, French aristocrats withdrew from the public eye. However, Princess Mathilde still held a salon in her mansion, rue de Courcelles, later rue de Berri. From the middle of the 19th century until the 1930s, a lady of society had to hold her "day", which meant that her salon was opened for visitors in the afternoon once a week, or twice a month. Days were announced in Le Bottin Mondain. The visitor gave his visit cards to the lackey or the maître d'hôtel, and he was accepted or not. Only people who had been introduced previously could enter the salon.
Marcel Proust called up his own turn-of-the-century experience to recreate the rival salons of the fictional duchesse de Guermantes and Madame Verdurin. He experienced himself his first social life in salons such as Mme Arman de Caillavet's one, which mixed artists and political men around Anatole France or Paul Bourget; Mme Straus' one, where the cream of the aristocracy mingled with artists and writers; or more aristocratic salons like Comtesse de Chevigné's, Comtesse Greffulhe's, Comtesse Jean de Castellane's, Comtesse Aimery de La Rochefoucauld's, etc. Some late 19th- and early 20th-century Paris salons were major centres for contemporary music, including those of Winnaretta Singer (the princesse de Polignac), and Élisabeth, comtesse Greffulhe. They were responsible for commissioning some of the greatest songs and chamber music works of Fauré, Debussy, Ravel and Poulenc.
Salon sociability quickly spread through Europe. In the 18th and 19th centuries, many large cities in Europe held salons along the lines of the Parisian models.
In Belgium, the 19th-century salon hosted by Constance Trotti attracted cultural figures, the Belgian aristocracy and members of the French exiled colony.[48]
A Reading in the Salon of Mme Geoffrin, 1755
Denmark
In Denmark, the salon culture was adopted during the 18th century. Christine Sophie Holstein and Charlotte Schimmelman were the most notable hostesses, in the beginning and in the end of the 18th century respectively, both of whom were credited with political influence.[49] During the Danish Golden Age in the late 18th century and early 19th century, the literary salon played a significant part in Danish culture life, notably the literary salons arranged by Friederike Brun at Sophienholm and that of Kamma Rahbek at Bakkehuset.[49]
Jewish culture in Central Europe
In the German-speaking palatinates and kingdoms, the most famous were held by Jewish ladies, such as Henriette Herz, Sara Grotthuis, and Rahel Varnhagen, and in Austria in the late 18th and early 19th centuries by two prominent Jewish Patrons of the Arts: Adele Bloch-Bauer[50] and Berta Zuckerkandl. Increasingly emancipated German-speaking Jews wanted to immerse themselves in the rich cultural life. However, individual Jews were faced with a dilemma: they faced new opportunities, but without the comfort of a secure community. For Jewish women, there was an additional issue. German society imposed the usual gender role restrictions and antisemitism, so cultivated Jewish women tapped into the cultural salon. But from 1800 on, salons performed a political and social miracle.[51] The salon allowed Jewish women to establish a venue in their homes in which Jews and non-Jews could meet in relative equality. Like-minded people could study art, literature, philosophy or music together. This handful of educated, acculturated Jewish women could escape the restrictions of their social ghetto. Naturally the women had to be in well-connected families, either to money or to culture. In these mixed gatherings of nobles, high civil servants, writers, philosophers and artists, Jewish salonnières created a vehicle for Jewish integration, providing a context in which patrons and artists freely exchanged ideas. Henriette Lemos Herz, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Dorothea Mendelssohn Schlegel, Amalie Wolf Beer and at least twelve other salonnières achieved fame and admiration.
Italy had had an early tradition of the salon; Giovanna Dandolo became known as a patron and gatherer of artists as wife of Pasquale Malipiero, the doge in Venice in 1457–1462, and the courtesan Tullia d'Aragona held a salon already in the 16th century, and in the 17th century Rome, the abdicated Queen Christina of Sweden and the princess Colonna, Marie Mancini, rivaled as salon hostesses. In the 18th century, Aurora Sanseverino provided a forum for thinkers, poets, artists, and musicians in Naples, making her a central figure in baroque Italy.[52]
The tradition of the literary salon continued to flourish in Italy throughout the 19th century. Naturally there were many salons with some of the most prominent being hosted by Clara Maffei in Milan, Emilia Peruzzi in Florence and Olimpia Savio in Turin. The salons attracted countless outstanding 19th-century figures including the romantic painter Francesco Hayez, composer Giuseppe Verdi and naturalist writers Giovanni Verga, Bruno Sperani and Matilde Serao. The salons served a very important function in 19th-century Italy, as they allowed young attendees to come into contact with more established figures. They also served as a method of avoiding government censorship, as a public discussion could be held in private. The golden age of the salon in Italy could be said to coincide with the pre-unification period, after which the rise of the newspaper replaced the salon as the main place for the Italian public to engage in the room of sex.[53]
Argentina's most active female figure in the revolutionary process, Mariquita Sánchez, was Buenos Aires' leading salonnière.[54] She fervently embraced the cause of revolution, and her tertulia gathered all the leading personalities of her time. The most sensitive issues were discussed there, as well as literary topics. Mariquita Sánchez is widely remembered in the Argentine historical tradition because the Argentine National Anthem was sung for the first time in her house, on 14 May 1813.[55] Other notable salonnières in colonial Buenos Aires were Mercedes de Lasalde Riglos and Flora Azcuénaga. Along with Mariquita Sánchez, the discussions at her houses led up to the May Revolution, the first stage in the struggle for Argentine independence from Spain.[56]
The salon culture was introduced to Imperial Russia during the Westernization Francophile culture of the Russian aristocracy in the 18th century. During the 19th century, several famous salon functioned hosted by the nobility in Saint Petersburg and Moscow, among the most famed being the literary salon of Zinaida Volkonskaya in 1820s Moscow.
Sweden
In Sweden, the salon developed during the late 17th century and flourished until the late 19th century. During the 1680s and 1690s, the salon of countess Magdalena Stenbock became a meeting where foreign ambassadors in Stockholm came to make contacts, and her gambling table was described as a center of Swedish foreign policy.[61]
During the Swedish Age of Liberty (1718–1772), women participated in political debate and promoted their favorites in the struggle between the Caps (party) and the Hats (party) through political salons.[61] These forums were regarded influential enough for foreign powers to engage some of these women as agents to benefit their interests in Swedish politics.[61] The arguably most noted political salonnière of the Swedish age of liberty was countess Hedvig Catharina De la Gardie (1695–1745), whose salon has some time been referred to as the first in Sweden, and whose influence on state affairs exposed her to libelous pamphlets and made her a target of Olof von Dahlin's libelous caricature of the political salon hostess in 1733.[61]Magdalena Elisabeth Rahm was attributed to have contributed to the realization of the Russo-Swedish War (1741–1743) through the campaign for the war she launched in her salon.[62] Outside of politics, Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht acted as the hostess of the literary academy Tankebyggarorden and Anna Maria Lenngren did the same for the Royal Swedish Academy.
In the 19th century, however, the leading salon hostesses in Sweden became more noted as the benefactors of the arts and charity than with politics. From 1820 and two decades onward, Malla Silfverstolpe became famous for her Friday nights salon in Uppsala, which became a center of the Romantic era in Sweden and, arguably the most famed literary salon in Sweden.[65] During the 1860s and 1870s, the Limnell Salon of the rich benefactor Fredrika Limnell in Stockholm came to be a famous center of the Swedish cultural elite, were especially writers gathered to make contact with wealthy benefactors,[66] a role which was eventually taken over by the Curman Receptions of Calla Curman in the 1880s and 1890s.[67]
Spain
In Iberia or Latin America, a tertulia is a social gathering with literary or artistic overtones. The word is originally Spanish and has only moderate currency in English, in describing Latin cultural contexts. Since the 20th century, a typical tertulia has moved out from the private drawing-room to become a regularly scheduled event in a public place such as a bar, although some tertulias are still held in more private spaces. Participants may share their recent creations (poetry, short stories, other writings, even artwork or songs).[68]
Martha Washington, the first American First Lady, performed a function similar to the host or hostess of the European salon. She held weekly public receptions throughout her husband's eight-year presidency (1789–1797). At these gatherings, members of Congress, visiting foreign dignitaries, and ordinary citizens alike were received at the executive mansion.[73] More recently, "society hostesses" such as Perle Mesta have done so as well. The Stettheimer sisters, including the artist Florine Stettheimer, hosted gatherings at their New York City home in the 1920s and '30s. During the Harlem Renaissance, Ruth Logan Roberts, Georgia Douglas Johnson and Zora Neale Hurston hosted salons that brought together leading figures in African-American literature, and in the culture and politics of Harlem at the time.[74][75]
Modern-day versions of the traditional salon (some with a literary focus, and others exploring other disciplines in the arts and sciences) are held throughout the world, in private homes and public venues.[1]
Sally Quinn and her husband Ben Bradlee hosted influential salons in Washington DC from the 1970s until the 2000s. "An invitation to the couple’s historic Georgetown home was one of the most coveted status symbols in the nation’s capital, an entry to an elite salon of the powerful, talented and witty."[76] In the 1980s, former nun, and musician Theodora di Marco and her sister Norma hosted musical and debating soirées in their home in Notting Hill, London.[77]
In 2014, in response to the isolation of the digital life, in-person events and salons grew in popularity.[78] In 2021 response to the isolation of the pandemic, Susan MacTavish Best, who was part of the movement, launched an educational resource for those who wish to host salons in their community called The Salon Host.[79][80]
The name salon remained, even when other quarters were found and the exhibits' irregular intervals became biennial. A jury system of selection was introduced in 1748, and the salon remained a major annual event even after the government withdrew official sponsorship in 1881.
The related terms salon-style exhibition or salon-style hang describe the practice of displaying large numbers of paintings, thus requiring placing them close together at multiple heights, often on a high wall.[81][82][83]
The Age of Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that occurred in Europe in the 17th and the 18th centuries. The Enlightenment featured a range of social ideas centered on the value of knowledge learned by way of rationalism and of empiricism and political ideals such as natural law, liberty, and progress, toleration and fraternity, constitutional government, and the formal separation of church and state.
Marie-Jeanne "Manon" Roland de la Platière, born Marie-Jeanne Phlipon, and best known under the name Madame Roland was a French revolutionary, salonnière and writer. Her letters and memoirs became famous for recording the state of mind that conditioned the events leading to the revolution.
Marie Thérèse Geoffrin was a French salon holder who has been referred to as one of the leading female figures in the French Enlightenment. From 1750 to 1777, Madame Geoffrin played host to many of the most influential Philosophes and Encyclopédistes of her time.
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein, commonly known as Madame de Staël, was a prominent philosopher, woman of letters, and political theorist in both Parisian and Genevan intellectual circles. She was the daughter of banker and French finance minister Jacques Necker and Suzanne Curchod, a respected salonist and writer. Throughout her life, she held a moderate stance during the tumultuous periods of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, persisting until the time of the French Restoration.
Catherine de Vivonne, marquise de Rambouillet, known as Madame de Rambouillet, was a society hostess and a major figure in the literary history of 17th-century France.
Madeleine de Scudéry, often known simply as Mademoiselle de Scudéry, was a French writer.
Olympe de Gouges was a French playwright and political activist. She is best known for her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen and other writings on women's rights and abolitionism.
The Republic of Letters was the long-distance intellectual community in the late 17th and 18th centuries in Europe and the Americas. It fostered communication among the intellectuals of the Age of Enlightenment, or philosophes as they were called in France. These communities that transcended national boundaries formed the basis of a metaphysical Republic. Because of societal constraints on women, the Republic of Letters consisted mostly of men.
The Lumières was a cultural, philosophical, literary and intellectual movement beginning in the second half of the 17th century, originating in France, then western Europe and spreading throughout the rest of Europe. It included philosophers such as Baruch Spinoza, David Hume, John Locke, Edward Gibbon, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Denis Diderot, Pierre Bayle and Isaac Newton. This movement is influenced by the scientific revolution in southern Europe arising directly from the Italian Renaissance with people like Galileo Galilei. Over time it came to mean the Siècle des Lumières, in English the Age of Enlightenment.
Sophie de Condorcet, also known as Sophie de Grouchy and best known and styled as Madame de Condorcet, was a prominent French salon hostess from 1789 to the Reign of Terror, and again from 1799 until her death in 1822. She was also a philosopher and the wife of the mathematician and philosopher Nicolas de Condorcet, who died during the Reign of Terror. Despite his death and the exile of her brother, Marshal Emmanuel de Grouchy, between 1815 and 1821, she maintained her own identity and was well-connected and influential before, during, and after the French Revolution.
The Mémoires secrets pour servir à l'histoire de la République des Lettres en France depuis 1762 jusqu'à nos jours is an anonymous chronicle of events that occurred between 1762 and 1787. Historian Dena Goodman thinks it started as a manuscript newsletter emanating from Paris. It was first published in London as a multi-volume set from 1781 to 1789. Thus, although the entries bear exact dates, they were not published until long after the events they describe.
The role of women in the Enlightenment is debated. It is acknowledged that women during this era were not considered of equal status to men, and much of their work and effort were suppressed. Even so, salons, coffeehouses, debating societies, academic competitions and print all became avenues for women to socialize, learn and discuss enlightenment ideas. For many women, these avenues furthered their roles in society and created stepping stones for future progress.
The salons of early modern France were social and intellectual gatherings that played an integral role in the cultural development of the country. The salons were seen by contemporary writers as a cultural hub for the upper middle class and aristocracy, responsible for the dissemination of good manners and sociability. Salons became a center of intellectual conversation, as well as a debate stage for social issues, playing host to many members of the Republic of Letters. In contrast to other early modern institutions, women played an important and visible role within the salons. Each woman, or salonnière, played a different role within these salons. Some were actively involved in conversation and debate, while others used their connections to bring others together and spread Enlightenment ideas.
The salons of Early Modern and Revolutionary France played an integral role in the cultural and intellectual development of France. The salons were seen by contemporary writers as a cultural hub, responsible for the dissemination of good manners and sociability. It was not merely manners that the salons supposedly spread but also ideas, as the salons became a centre of intellectual as well as social exchange, playing host to many members of the Republic of Letters. Women, in contrast to other Early Modern institutions, played an important and visible role within the salons. The extent of this role is, however, heavily contested by some historians.
The word parterre comes from the French par and terre and literally translated means "on the ground". The main meaning of the word is the front section of a formal garden, but by the mid-17th century, it was also used to refer both to the ground level of a theatre where spectators stood to watch performances and to the group of spectators who occupied that space.
Debating societies emerged in London in the early eighteenth century, and were a prominent feature of society until the end of the century. The origins of the debating societies are not certain, but by the mid-18th century, London fostered an active debating culture. Topics ranged from current events and governmental policy, to love and marriage, and the societies welcomed participants from all genders and all social backgrounds, exemplifying the enlarged public sphere of the Age of Enlightenment.
The tradition of women's literary circles in the Arab world dates back to the pre-Islamic period when the eminent literary figure, Al-Khansa, would stand in the 'Ukaz market in Mecca, reciting her poetry and airing her views on the scholarship of others. From this, a culture of literary criticism emerged among Arab women, and under the Umayyad dynasty, Sukaynah Bint Al-Husayn established the first literary salon in her home. The tradition was revived during the late nineteenth century, as a result of sweeping social, political and economic change within the Ottoman Empire and Europe's increasing political and cultural influence in the region. The initial pioneers of the Arab salon were women from wealthy families in the region of Syria and Egypt, who returned influenced by interaction with European women during their time spent studying abroad and frequenting Parisian salons, or studying in schools run by European or American missionaries. The salon evenings, run by women but attended by both men and women, provided a unique opportunity to have discussions about social, political and literary trends of the day. Though the tradition died out somewhat after the Second World War, it has left a lasting legacy on literary culture and women's issues throughout the Arab world.
Historians since the late 20th century have debated how women shared in the French Revolution and what impact it had on French women. Women had no political rights in pre-Revolutionary France; they were considered "passive" citizens, forced to rely on men to determine what was best for them. That changed dramatically in theory as there seemingly were great advances in feminism. Feminism emerged in Paris as part of a broad demand for social and political reform. These women demanded equality for women and then moved on to a demand for the end of male domination. Their chief vehicle for agitation were pamphlets and women's clubs. The Jacobin element in power abolished all the women's clubs in October 1793 and arrested their leaders. The movement was crushed. Devance explains the decision in terms of the emphasis on masculinity in wartime, Marie Antoinette's bad reputation for feminine interference in state affairs, and traditional male supremacy. A decade later the Napoleonic Code confirmed and perpetuated women's second-class status.
Sara Grotthuis, born Sara Meyer, also known as Sophie Leopoldine Wilhelmine Baroness von Grotthuis and as Sara Wulff by her first marriage, was one of the most well-known "salonnières" of the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Berlin.
Maria Martínez Abelló, known as Madama Abelló, was a Spanish writer, dramatist, poet and salonnière.
↑ (in French)Dictionnaire des lettres françaises: le XVIIe siècle, revised edition by Patrick Dandrey, ed. Fayard, Paris, 1996, p. 1149. ISBN2-253-05664-2
↑ Aronson, Nicole, Madame de Rambouillet ou la magicienne de la Chambre bleue, Fayard, Paris, 1988.
↑ Kale, Steven. French Salons: High Society and Political Sociability from the Old Regime to the revolution of 1848. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. p.2
↑ Lenotre, G. Le Château de Rambouillet, six siècles d'Histoire, Calmann-Lévy, Paris, 1930. New publication, Denoël, Paris, 1984, chapter: Les précieuses, pp. 20-21
↑ Collier, Bruce; MacLachlan, James H. (1998). Charles Babbage and the engines of perfection. Oxford portraits in science. New York: Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN978-0-19-508997-4. Before long, the Babbage soirées formed an important part of the London social scene. Often, the guest list exceeded 200. They came from all parts of polite society: lawyers and judges, doctors and surgeons, deacons and bishops, and scholars and artists by the score. There were aristocrats like the Duke of Wellington, hero of Waterloo, and the Marquis of Lansdowne, a reforming minister in Liberal cabinets. From the arts and letters came Shakespearian actor William Macready, historians Thomas Macauley and Henry Milman, the novelist Charles Dickens, and the celebrated wit Sydney Smith. The scien- tists included telegraph inventor Charles Wheatstone, geol- ogists Charles Lyell and William Fitton, and the young biologist and world traveler, Charles Darwin. Photographic inventor William Fox-Talbot came with his friend John Herschel. Visitors from abroad were also welcomed: the German composer Felix Mendelssohn; Camillo Cavour, the Italian statesman who was later active in the unification of his country; Alexis de Tocqueville, the French author of Democracy in America; and from America, the physicist Joseph Henry.
↑ Dena Goodman, The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994), p. 280.
↑ Steven Kale, French Salons: High Society and Political Sociability from the Old Regime to the Revolution of 1848 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006) p. 9
↑ Sisley Huddleston, Bohemian, Literary and Social Life in Paris: Salons, Cafes, Studios (London: George G. Harrap, 1928)
↑ Dena Goodman, 'Enlightenment Salons: The Convergence of Female and Philosophic Ambitions' Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 22, No. 3, Special Issue: The French Revolution in Culture (Spring, 1989), pp. 330
1 2 Dena Goodman, The Republic of Letters: a Cultural History of the French Enlightenment (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994), p. 14.
1 2 Jürgen Habermas (trans. Thomas Burger), The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society (Camb., Mass.: MIT Press, 1989).
↑ Joan B. Landes, Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988); Goodman, The Republic of Letters; Erica Harth, Cartesian Women: Versions and Subversions of Rational Discourse in the Old Regime (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992).
↑ Antoine Lilti, 'Sociabilité et mondanité: Les hommes de lettres dans les salons parisiens au XVIIIe siècle' French Historical Studies, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Summer 2005), p. 417.
↑ Jolanta T. Pekacz, Conservative Tradition In Pre-Revolutionary France: Parisian Salon Women, p. 1.
↑ S. G. Tallentyre, Women of the Salons (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1926) and Julia Kavanagh, Women in France during the Enlightenment Century, 2 Vols (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1893).
↑ Edmond et Jules de Goncourt, La femme au dix-huitème siècle (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1862) and Paul Deschanel, Figures des femmes (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1900).
↑ Pekacz, Conservative Tradition In Pre-Revolutionary France, p. 2.
↑ Anny Latour (Trans. A. A. Dent), Uncrowned Queens: Reines Sans Couronne (London: J. M. Dent, 1970)
↑ Carolyn C. Lougee, Women, Salons and Social Stratification in Seventeenth Century France, pp. 3-7.
↑ Goodman, Dena.Enlightenment salons: The Convergence of Female and Philosophic Ambitions. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 22. 3, Special issue: The French Revolution in Culture. (Spring, 1989), p 338
↑ Kale, Steven.French Salons: High Society and Political Sociability from the Old Regime to the revolution of 1848. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press,2004. p.2
↑ Goodman, Dena.Enlightenment salons: The Convergence of Female and Philosophic Ambitions. Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 22. 3, Special issue: The French Revolution in Culture. (Spring, 1989), p.331
↑ Bodek, Evelyn Gordon. Salonnières and the Bluestockings: Educated Obsolescence and Germinating feminism, Feminist Studies, Vol. 3 No. 3/4 (spring-summer, 1976), p. 186
↑ Garonna, Paolo (2010). L'Europe de Coppet - Essai sur l'Europe de demain (in French). Le Mont-sur-Lausanne: LEP Éditions Loisirs et Pėdagogie. ISBN978-2-606-01369-1.
↑ Django Reinhardt - Swing De Paris. 6 Oct. 2012. Exhibit. La Cité de la musique, Paris.
↑ Galasso, Norberto (2000). Seamos libres y lo demás no importa nada[Let us be free and nothing else matters] (in Spanish). Buenos Aires: Colihue. p.102. ISBN978-950-581-779-5.
Davetian, Benet, Civility: A Cultural History (University of Toronto Press, 2009)
Elias, Norbert, (Trans. Edmund Jephcott), The Civilizing Process: The History of Manners, Vol. 1 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1978)
Goodman, Dena, The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994)
Goodman, Dena, Enlightenment Salons: The Convergence of Female and Philosophic Ambitions, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 22, No. 3, Special Issue: The French Revolution in Culture (Spring, 1989), pp.329–350
Kale, Steven, French Salons: High Society and Political Sociability from the Old Regime to the Revolution of 1848 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006)
Habermas, Jürgen, (trans. Thomas Burger), The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society (Camb., Mass.: MIT Press, 1989)
Harth, Erica, Cartesian Women: Versions and Subversions of Rational Discourse in the Old Regime (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992).
Huddleston, Sisley, Bohemian, Literary and Social Life in Paris: Salons, Cafes, Studios (London: George G. Harrap, 1928)
Kavanagh, Julia, Women in France during the Enlightenment Century, 2 Vols (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1893)
Landes, Joan B., Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988);
Latour, Anny (Trans. A. A. Dent), Uncrowned Queens: Reines Sans Couronne (London: J. M. Dent, 1970)
Lougee, Carolyn C., Le Paradis des Femmes: Women, Salons and Social Stratification in Seventeenth Century France (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976)
Lilti, Antoine, Sociabilité et mondanité: Les hommes de lettres dans les salons parisiens au XVIIIe siècle, French Historical Studies, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Summer 2005), p.415-445
Pekacz, Jolanta T., Conservative Tradition In Pre-Revolutionary France: Parisian Salon Women (New York: Peter Lang, 1999)
Roche, Daniel, (Trans Arthur Goldhammr), France in the Enlightenment, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: HUP, 1998)
Tallentyre, S. G., Women of the Salons (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1926)
Von der Heyden-Rynsch, Verena, Europaeische Salons. Hoehepunkte einer versunken weiblichen Kultur (Düsseldorf: Artemis & Winkler, 1997)
Further reading
Beasley, Faith E. Salons, History, and the Creation of Seventeenth-Century France. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Company,2006.
Bilski, Emily et al. Jewish Women and Their Salons: The Power of Conversation, Jewish Museum New York, 2005.
Craveri, Benedetta. The Age of Conversation. Trans. Teresa Waugh. New York: New York Review Books,2005.
James Ross, 'Music in the French Salon'; in Caroline Potter and Richard Langham Smith (eds.), French Music Since Berlioz (Ashgate Press, 2006), pp.91–115. ISBN0-7546-0282-6.
Mainardi, Patricia. The End of the Salon: Art and the State of the Early Republic. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
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