Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/70

 50 ACADEMY permanently to his court by collecting books and treasures of art. Rome had no academies. The Alexandrian example, if lost upon the Ro- mans, was imitated by the Jews in Palestine and Babylonia, and to a degree also by the Nes- torian Christians. The Arabian caliphs profit- ed by the lessons taught them by their Jewish and Christian subjects, and improved upon them by founding establishments for the preservation and increase of learning from Cordova to Sainar- cand. Charlemagne, following the suggestion of the learned Alcuin, encouraged men of cul- ture to assemble in his palace ; but after his death nothing was heard of academies until to- ward the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century, when institutions of the kind were established at Florence, Palermo, and Toulouse, chiefly devoted to the cultivation of poetry. It was not till after the downfall of the Byzantine empire in the 15th century, and the revival of classical culture in western Eu- rope, that academies of a more comprehensive kind were established in Italy. The Accademia Pontaniana, so called after its principal bene- factor Pontano, was founded at Palermo in 1433 by Antonio Beccadella. The Accademia Platonica, founded by Lorenzo de' Medici in 1474, lasted till 1521, counting among its mem- bers Machiavelli and other illustrious men, who devoted themselves to the study of Plato and of Dante, and to the improvement of the Ital- ian language and letters. This institution be- came the model of many others. Rome had its Lincei, Naples its Ardenti, Parma its In- sensati, and Genoa its Addormentati. In other towns were the academies of the Con- fused, of the Unstable, of the Drowsy, the Dead, the Nocturnal, the Thunderers, the Smoky, and the Vagabonds. Most of these academies were endowed by the state or by some wealthy patron of learning. All those learned associations which are in point of fact academies, but which bear the name of soci- eties, will be treated under that title. We shall now proceed to notice some of the most celebrated academies of the world, ranged according to their nationalities. I. Italian Academies. Italy is the mother country of modern academies. Jakeius, who in 1725 published at Leipsic an account >f them, enu- merates nearly 600 as then existing. We have already mentioned the first two ; they did not live long. The most enduring and influential of all was the Accademia, delta Crusca (liter- ally, academy of bran or chaff), so called in al- lusion to its chief object of purifying and win- nowing the national tongue. It was founded in 1582 at Florence by the poet Grazzini. The dictionary of the Academy della Crusca was first published in 1612, and in its augmented form (Florence, 1729-'38) is considered the standard authority for the Italian language. The Delia Crusca is now incorporated with two still older societies, and thus united they are called the royal Florentine academy. The Academia Secretorum Nature* was established at Naples in 1560 for the cultivation of physical science, but was speedily abolished. This was succeeded by the Accademia de 1 Lin- cei (of the Lynx-eyed) at Rome, founded by Prince Federico Cesi in 1609, and dissolved af- ter his death in 1632; but the name was re- vived in 1847 by Pius IX. in the Accademia Pontiftc'ia de 1 nuovi Lincei, a scientific associa- tion of resident and foreign members, which publishes its transactions. The Accademia del Cimento, or of experiment, was also insti- tuted for the prosecution of inquiries in physical science, under the protection of Prince Leopold, brother of the grand duke of Tus- cany. A collection of experiments was pub- lished in Italian by this academy in 1667, of which a Latin translation was made with valu- able notes. The Accademia degli Arcadi, or of the Arcadians, at Rome, originated in 1690 from the social gatherings at the palace of Queen Christina of Sweden, and met in the open air, poets and poetesses only being ad- mitted, and each member assuming the name of a shepherd. Its scope was afterward en- larged, and since 1726 it has met in sum- mer in the Bosco Parrasio of Mount Jani- culum, in winter .in the Serbatojo. It pub- lishes a monthly collection of pieces, called the Giomale Arcadico, which frequently contains curious archaeological information. Pope Leo XII. was elected a member in 1824, and Louis Napoleon, then president of the French repub- lic, in 1850. At Naples the Reale Accademia delle Scieme e Belle Lettere was established in 1749, and the Accademia Ercolanea in 1755. The purpose of the latter was to explain the remains which were exhumed at Herculaneum and Pompeii. Its first volume appeared in 1776. Further volumes have since been pub- lished under the title of Antichita di Ercolano. Another existing academy is the Accademia Etrmca at Cortona, founded in 1726. The royal academy of Turin, in whose volumes of transactions Lagrange first made himself known, is chiefly remarkable on that account. Padua, Milan, Siena, Verona, Genoa, all have academies which publish transactions from time to time. The earliest academies of fine arts are also Italian. That of San Luca at Rome was established in 1593 by Federico Zucchero, who erected a building for it at his own expense. Academies of fine arts also ex- ist in the principal cities of Italy. II. French Academies. The earliest and greatest of the French academies, the Academic francai&e, was instituted in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, for the improvement and regulation of the na- tional tongue. The number of its members was limited to 40. They met three times a week at the Louvre. The most remarkable claim of this academy to fame is the dictionary of the French language published in 1694, after 50 years consumed in debate upon the words to be inserted as good French. Many addi- tions have been made to this in successive edi- tions, the 6th and latest of which was published