Société des douze

'Literature Society of Brussels') founded on 10 January 1800, was deprecated by the government of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and disappeared in 1823.

Some of its members continued to meet in the salon of Lesbroussart and founded in the same year (1823) the Société des douze.

The secrecy surrounding it[11] attracted suspicion from the Press and William I's government.

[12] This first Société des douze, founded during the reign of William I, ended around 1830, as the Belgian Revolution seemed imminent.

This second Société des douze was founded in 1834, in the same spirit of the first one, by the new generation who would bring it back to life.

Louis de Potter , Belgian revolutionary , was a founding member of the first society.
Auguste Baron , intellectual, was a founding member of the first society.
Joseph-Denis Odevaere , painter, was a founding member of the first society.
Adolphe Quételet , astronomer and mathematician, was a founding member of the first society.
Sylvain Van de Weyer , who would become the 8th prime minister of Belgium , was a founding member of the first society.
Augustus van Dievoet , lawyer and legal historian, founding member of the second society.
Jean-Baptiste Van Mons , chemist, founding member of the second society.