Virgin Mary reads in the 15th century in comfortable Flemish interiors, as Saint Jerome writes in his study. Vermeer women write and receive letters in 17th-century commercial Holland, when men spend so much time away from home. Reading and writing, always in relation... It will be, however, in the 18th century, when there is a greater "democratization" of reading: "brochures" with novels are published and libraries are opened to the public.

Goya portrays a pensive Jovellanos, who has read a lot to be able to write. The Seven Hundred will also put into practice female reading, which is seen enough to contain the passionate impulses in the private space, and at the same time it will be a sign of some intellectual distinction. But soon the greed to read will be perceived as pernicious, a land paid by the "Bovarys" of the world. Reading as an invitation to subversion of the order and to question it, here is its "danger", before and always.