This document discusses how ideas spread in the late 17th and 18th centuries through group gatherings like salons and coffeehouses. Salons were gatherings in private homes that mixed upper and middle classes and sexes, often hosted by important women. Coffeehouses were public spaces that mixed classes and were sites for philosophical debates, current events, and gossip. Both helped spread ideas discussed by philosophers at the time. Print publications like newspapers and novels also contributed to spreading ideas to a growing literate population.

2. Le Grand Salon de Frascati in Paris

3. A London coffee shop in the late 17th century

4.  On your own, write:
 What kind of people were attending Julie de Lespinasse’s salon in
Paris? What were they discussing? What was Madame de
Lespinasse’s social status?
 What kind of people were coming to London coffeehouses
according to Colby? What do patrons do at coffeehouses? What
topics do they discuss?
 In pairs, discuss:
 Compare and contrast the images of salons and coffeehouses
presented by these readings

5. How did these ideas spread?
1. Group gatherings
 Salons, coffeehouses,
cafes, reading clubs,
bookstores, social groups,
etc.
 Philosophes
“The Coffeehouse Mob” in
London (c. 1710)

6. Salons
 Gatherings of philosophes
in private homes
 Mixing of classes (upper
and middle) and sexes
 Important women hosts
 Marie-Thérèse de Geoffrin
(1699-1777)
 Marquise du Deffand
(1697-1780) The Parisian salon of Madame Geoffrin
in 1755, by Charles Lemonnier (1812)

7. Coffeehouses & Cafes
 Spaces open to the
(paying) public
 Philosophical debates but
also current events,
scandals, gossip, etc.
 Mixing of classes (upper,
middle, and some
working)

8. Voltaire, Diderot, d’Alembert, Condorcet and others at Café Procope (mid-1700s)

9. The Café Procope today

10. Above: French café
culture in the 1920s
Below: French café
culture in
contemporary times

11. 2. Spread of Print
Publications
 Newspapers, magazines,
pamphlets, novels
 Increasing literacy

14. 3) Grub Street
 Satirical and gossip
publications
 Politically subversive
 “Philosophical”
pornography
Grub Street in London

15. Le Gazetier Cuirassé, pamphlet by Charles Théveneau de
Morande (1771):
“The devout wife of a certain Maréchal de France (who suffers
from an imaginary lung disease), finding a husband of that
species too delicate, considers it her religious duty to spare him
and so condemns herself to the crude caresses of her butler,
who would still be a lackey if he hadn't proven himself so
robust.”
“Of approximately two hundred colonels in the infantry, cavalry,
and dragoons in France, one hundred and eighty know how to
dance and to sing little songs; about the same number wear lace
and red heels; at least half can read and sign their names; and in
additional not four of them know the first elements of their
craft”

16. Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)

17. Terese Philosophe, by Jean-Baptiste de Boyer (1748)