German Literary Salons 1770-1830

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

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Although the term

salon

was 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…

1650 words

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 23 November 2024.]

1713 German Literary Salons 1770-1830 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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