Although the term
salonwas not applied to literary assemblies until the early nineteenth century (Madame de Staël, 1807), actual meetings of the elite of society for the purpose of intellectual exchange have been a cultural phenomenon of significance in Europe since the Renaissance, with prototypes going back to Pericles’ times (Aspasia’s circle, ca. 440 B.C.). Baldassare Castiglione (1498-1529) memorialized the regular assemblies attended by the nobility and the intelligentsia at the court of Federico da Montefeltre at Urbino in his famous book
Il Cortegiano[
The Gentleman, 1518], a manual that sets forth norms of courtesy to be observed in cultured society. Among the Renaissance precursors of the later salons proper are the Neoplatonic Academy in Florence (1459), the studio of…
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Citation: Hoffmeister, Gerhart. "German Literary Salons 1770-1830". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 February 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1713, accessed 21 November 2024.]