… sociable practices such as discussions, there was less of an impetus for the latter to develop. The art of conversation played a central role in Parisian salons, alongside gambling and literary readings. (Lilti 273–318) The desired outcomes, … in the same way as in the provincial academies of France, with two forms of meeting: ‘the closed proceedings and the displays of pomp were, for academicians, the two halves of a coherent civil liturgy.’ (Roche 134) The addition of a …