The Digital Encyclopedia of British Sociability in the Long Eighteenth Century

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The Project

An innovative tool and an interdisciplinary approach

An open-access digital encyclopedia with a multi-modal search engine
An international and interdisciplinary project led by the GIS Sociabilités / Sociability since 2017
An EU-funded project (Horizon 2020-MSCA-RISE) since 2019, promoting staff exchange and intersectoral collaborations
A digital humanities project managed by an experienced editorial team
Encyclopedia entries written in English or French by eighteenth-century scholars in various fields (history, art history, literature, philosophy, material culture, linguistics ...) and reviewed by a dedicated committee
A complementary anthology of texts related to various aspects of sociability and connected to the entries

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Bringing academic research on eighteenth-century sociability to a wider audience

Explore the wide range of topics related to British Sociability from 1650 to 1850 and learn about the circulation of models of sociability that shaped European and colonial societies.
Discover the collaborative work between academic researchers on primary source material in their respective fields of expertise
Browse through 200 entries enriched with illustrations, hyperlinks, footnotes and further reading suggestions
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Latest entries

Places

Spa sociability in Bath and Pyrmont

COSSIC Annick

WOOD Karl

Bath and Pyrmont were each renowned for their waters in the long eighteenth century. Bath set up an innovative model of spa sociability that supposedly exemplified the main principles of an ‘open society,’ while Pyrmont also defined a new approach to spa life but along different lines.

James Byres

AMBLARD Marion

James Byres settled in Rome in the 1750s and lived in the Eternal City for over thirty years, at a time when the Grand Tour reached its height of popularity. Working as a guide, antiquarian, art dealer and architect, Byres rapidly became a key player in Rome’s artistic, cultural and social life.

People

Practices

Masonic brotherhood

BEAUREPAIRE Pierre-Yves

Au XVIIIe siècle, la Franc-maçonnerie se définit comme ‘la’ Fraternité, et ses membres comme frères. Sans attendre Baudelaire et le ‘droit naturel de choisir ses frères’, la Franc-maçonnerie revendique la possibilité de faire des ‘amis choisis’ (beaucoup de loges prennent d’ailleurs ce nom) des frères et de cultiver des liens d’amour fraternel qui permettent de transcender les différences et de ‘réunir ce qui est épars’.

Anthology

As part of its H2020 programme (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (MSCA-RISE-2018)), the European Commission has granted significant financial support to DIGITENS, the flagship project of the Scientific Interest Grouping (GIS) “Sociabilités/Sociability”.