European cafes between history and culture

The eighteenth century was the golden age of European cafes: they were proposed as the haunt of the emerging bourgeoisie as opposed to aristocratic salons and popular taverns and alehouses. Cafes were thus central places in the commercial and cultural life of European cities, where the main aspects of bourgeois society developed, from capitalist economics to Enlightenment philosophy.

By the end of the 18th century there were nearly 3,000 cafés in Paris. Among them Café Procope is still in operation today. It was the most famous meeting place of the Enlightenment: Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot frequented it and in particular it was the regular haunt of encyclopedists.

Italian cafes were also a place for literary and political discussions, so much so that the most important magazine of the Italian Enlightenment was called 'Il Caffè'.