A rejected prospectus : Leigh Hunt, Giuseppe Molini and the search for new readers

Abstract

In March 1824 Leigh Hunt applied to the Tuscan censor for permission to publish a new monthly journal which would specifically exclude discussion of politics and religion and would be called Molini 's English Magazine. This journal was primarily intended for English visitors or residents and was planned as a compilation from English magazines with a concluding article by Hunt himself significantly called Reading Room. Although no official reason was given, the authorities refused permission, perhaps because of the reputation of The Liberal, perhaps because they feared the English. Hunt's unsuccessful initiative has usually been neglected but, however briefly, it seems to have envisaged the possibility of a new kind of reading-public. He was probably influenced by continental examples, especially those of Molini himself and Giovan Pietro Vieusseux, whose library included a reading-room and who founded a miscellaneous literary journal.