English coffee-houses – la storia di un modo nuovo di fare cultura

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In 1700 the  English coffeehouse became very important centres of communication for spreading (=divulgazione ) news. Most of them distributed pamphlets and newspapers, for  the price of admission they became associated with news culture.  

Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, the famous journalists founders of The Spectator and the Tatler used the coffeehouses as sources (= fonti) for their news and gossips and as places where to spread their publications. During this period the new bourgeois public discussed and transformed opinions. In English coffeehouses various forms of print items (=forme stampate) , such as newspapers, journals and some of the latest books, were read and discussed; moreover London coffeehouse in particular offered a place where common people could discuss political and religious topics. Different political groups even used the popularity of coffeehouses for their own political ends: Puritans encouraged proprietors to forbid (= proibire) the consumption of alcohol; royalist critics considered them as places where common subjects could speak about political talk .
Women were not allowed to consume coffee in coffeehouses. They issued (= firmarono) a petition, The Women’s petition against Coffee in which they supported the idea that coffee made men sterile and impotent and as the cause of domestic crises because men did not stay at home.
The few women who entered coffeehouses or that also became proprietors of them did not take part in politics discussions. 

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