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A ''conversazione'' is a "social gathering
redominantlyheld by
learned or art society" for conversation and discussion, especially about the arts, literature, medicine, and science.
[Auckland Museum and Institute, ''New Zealand Herald'', (Friday 17 September 1880), p.5.](_blank)
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::It would not be easy to devise a happier way han the ''conversazione''of bringing novelties at once under practical criticism—of making the outliers
In statistics, an outlier is a data point that differs significantly from other observations. An outlier may be due to a variability in the measurement, an indication of novel data, or it may be the result of experimental error; the latter are ...
of science acquainted with the centre, of enabling investigators to compare operations and discuss facts and speculations, and of giving occasion for renewal of intercourse and removal of misunderstandings. …
hetangible gain to science rom the ''coversazione'' is thatinventors and experimentalists … hear irectlywhat contemporaries say of their schemes and experiments, and much can be said and done with advantage amid the free talk of a general gathering which could not be permitted in the formal meeting of a scientific society. (''Nature'', 5 May 1870.)
Origin
The writer Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician.
He had Strawb ...
is credited with the first recorded English use of ''conversazione'' in a letter written (from Italy) on 11 November 1739 to Richard West (1716-1742) in which he writes, "After the play we were introduced to the assembly, which they iz., the Italianscall the ''conversazione''".
Historical usage in Britain
In Italy, the term generally refers to a gathering for conversation; and was first used in English to identify the sort of private social gathering more generally known today as an "At Home".
In England, however, it soon came to be far more widely used to denote the gatherings of a far more intellectual character, and was applied in the more specific sense of a scientific, artistic, or literary assembly/soirée
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...
, generally held at night.
::A ''conversazione'' like everything else has undergone conspicuous development in these days.
Formerly the word was applicable only to a meeting of ''