The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres

ACADEMY OF INSCRIPTIONS AND BELLES-LETTRES, an institution founded at Paris by Colbert in 1663, under the name of Petite Académie. It was composed originally of four members, chosen by the ministry to belong to the Académie Française. The first members, Chapelain, Charpentier, the Abbé de Bourzers and the Abbé Cassagne, met in a salon of the Louvre or in Colbert's library and devoted themselves to composing the inscriptions for the monuments erected by Louis XIV and the medals struck in his honor; hence their popular name. They undertook a medallic history of the reign of the King. In 1701 the Academy assumed its definitive form; 40 academicians were named. In 1803 the Academy was reconstituted and became the third class of the Institute. Comparative philology, Oriental, Greek and Roman antiquities and epigraphy have received the attention of the Academy, which has published a series of invaluable records and works.