The Athenian Society was an organization founded by

John Dunton John Dunton (4 May 1659 – 1733) was an English bookseller and author. In 1691 he founded The Athenian Society to publish '' The Athenian Mercury'', the first major popular periodical and first miscellaneous periodical in England. In 1693, for ...

in 1691 to facilitate the writing and publication of his weekly

periodical A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also examples ...

The Athenian Mercury ''The Athenian Mercury'', or ''The Athenian Gazette'', or ''The Question Project'', or ''The Casuistical Mercury'', was a periodical written by ''The Athenian Society'' and published in London twice weekly between 17 March 1690 ( i.e. 1691 Gregor ...

''. Though represented as a large panel of experts, the society reached its peak at four members: Dunton, Dr. John Norris,

Richard Sault Richard Sault (born around 1630s ; died 1702) was an English mathematician, editor and translator, one of The Athenian Society. On the strength of his ''Second Spira'' he is also now credited as a Christian Cartesian philosopher. Andrew Pyle (e ...

and Dunton's brother-in-law, Rev.

Samuel Wesley Samuel Wesley (24 February 1766 – 11 October 1837) was an English organist and composer in the late Georgian period. Wesley was a contemporary of Mozart (1756–1791) and was called by some "the English Mozart".Kassler, Michael & Olleson, Ph ...

. The group would answer the questions of readers about any topic, creating the first

advice column An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response. The responses are w ...

. In 1693, for four weeks, ''The Athenian Society'' published also ''

The Ladies' Mercury ''The Ladies' Mercury'' (27 February 1693 — 17 March 1693) was a periodical published in London by the Athenian Society notable for being the first periodical in English published and specifically designed for women readers. History In 1690 ...

'', the first periodical published that was specifically designed just for

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

History

In 1691, John Dunton founded The Athenian Society (not to be confused with several other "Athenian Societies") in order to publish a journal. This group was originally composed of a small number of friends: John Dunton and mathematics teacher

, then philosopher Dr. John Norris (though he declined to be part of the Society in writing and associated to profits), quickly joined by Dunton's brother-in-law the poet Rev.

(according to Dunton, it would eventually grow to 12 members; there is no evidence of such additional members, though). Its name, and all its subsequent related "Athenian" names, derived from a biblical reference to St. Paul in Athens: "For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing." (

Acts The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message ...

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The Society was established in order to write and publish ''The Athenian Gazette'', become ''

'' with its second issue due to a legal threat, a journal sold one penny twice weekly, then four times a week. It professed to answer in print all questions received from anonymous readers on "divinity, history, philosophy, mathematics, love, poetry", and things in general; the answers (and sometimes the questions) were written anonymously by "a Member of the Athenian Society" (one of the four friends). The new journal received a tremendous response and generated several imitations. On 14 February 1692 a young

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

sent them a letter of appreciation along with an "Ode to the Athenian Society", his first published work. Concurrently to the periodical, issues of the journal were bound in calf leather and sold as ''The Athenian Gazette'', collecting a whole volume for 2.5 shilling (about one month after the last issue collected was released), a more permanent form with indexes preferred by learned customers and distinguished women; this is why the journal is often referenced to by its original ''Athenian Gazette'' name rather than the ''Athenian Mercury'' issues.

Demise of the Society

In 1695, a glut of new titles led to the journal temporarily pausing in early 1696; in 1697, the death of Dunton's wife and the departure of Wesley after he received a promotion, led to a brief and aborted revival of the journal. It had run for 580 issues across nineteen volumes and a third: from 17 March 1691 to 8 February 1696 (19 full volumes of thirty issues, with a temporary closure between July and September 1692), then from May to 14 June 1697 (ten issues). In 1703, Dunton sold the ''Athenian Mercury'' to publisher Andrew Bell, who collected selected and abridged parts in larger volumes called ''The Athenian Oracle'', 3 volumes in 1703–1704, with multiple reprints. Dunton would go on to project compiling three more volumesDunton 1818, p
195
196 (without serialization), releasing only the 4th in 1710. All four volumes were reprinted in 1728.

References

Notes

Major sources

* Berry, Helen M., ''Gender, society, and print culture in late Stuart England / The Cultural World of the Athenian Mercury'', Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2003, * Dunton, John & National Art Library (Great Britain) et al., ''The life and errors of John Dunton, citizen of London'', J. Nichols, son, and Bentley, 1818 * Gudelunas, David, ''Confidential to America: newspaper advice columns and sexual education'', Aldine Transaction, 2007, * Locher, Miriam A., ''Advice online: advice-giving in an American Internet health column'', John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2006, {{DEFAULTSORT:Athenian Society Defunct learned societies of the United Kingdom 1691 establishments in England Organizations established in 1691 fr:The Athenian Mercury