How to Approach Salons? A Fin-de-siècle Italian Case Study

Abstract

Many scholars have problematised the meaning that is nowadays attributed to the word salon, even if most of them still use it as a concept to study a specific female type of sociability. The regularity of the meetings, and the mixtures of gender, social groups and nationalities are mostly mentioned as the defining characteristics of a salon. Since these have a quantitative fundament it is surprising that most scholars only use qualitative methods. Analysing the receptions of the Italian countess Ersilia Caetani-Lovatelli, this article shows the value of quantitative research. It helps disproving old historiographical assumptions that are mostly related to the social composition and functioning of the gatherings. It also leads to a plea for using of the alternative concept of private sociability.

Connecting the peninsula and beyond: Italian intellectual networks of the early modern and modern period. An introduction

“…An ambitious and important example has been the large Stanford-based 'Mapping the Republic of Letters' project, 30 which includes subprojects on the Grand Tour, that analyses the routes, people and places that made up the Grand Tour of Europe and Italy in particular; 31 as well as on salons, which charts the intellectual and social geography of European salons between 1700-1914. 32 Another wonderful initiative has been a four-year project on The Italian Academies, 1525-1700, which resulted in an online catalogue with data of some 500 academies from across the Italian peninsula. 33 This overview of the history of (historical) network analysis shows that we are dealing with a vibrant and active interdisciplinary field.…”