Roman academies were associations of learned individuals, rather than institutes for instruction. They were connected with larger educational structures conceived during and after the Italian Renaissance, at the height of which (from the 1418 end of the Western Schism to the mid-16th century) the two main intellectual centers were Florence and Rome. Scientific, literary, and artistic culture developed, with the earlier Rome and Florentine academies as examples.
History
The Renaissance
Bessarion's circle
Renaissance academies in Rome and Florence aimed to reproduce the traditions of
Platonic Academy, promoting the cultivation of
philosophy in the
Ancient Greek sense of "love of wisdom" characterized by Renaissance Platonism and
neoplatonism. was The home of Cardinal and
Byzantine Greek exile Basilios Bessarion, one of several meeting places for scholarly events and discussion, was known as an
academia (academy).
[de Beer, pp. 186–190] Bessarion's extensive library, which he bequeathed to the city of
Venice, was at the disposal of his many houseguests. His visitors included learned Greek refugees whom he supported by commissioning transcripts of Greek manuscripts and translations into Latin to make Greek scholarship available to Western Europeans.
Pomponio's Accademia Romana
Another circle of humanists has become known as the "Roman Academy" (
Accademia Romana) of Pomponio. A thrifty humanist scholar who refused the customary patronage of rich cardinals, Pomponio Leto hosted a circle of friends who shared pagan-influenced humanism which was becoming characteristic of Renaissance Rome and elsewhere. Born in
Teggiano in 1425 as Giulio Sanseverino, son of a Sanseverino nobleman, Pomponio devoted his energies in Rome to the study of classical antiquity and became the centre of a group of like-minded friends. Each assumed a classical name; his was Julius Pomponius Laetus, or Laetus. Prominent members were humanists with neo-pagan,
epicurean interests, such as Bartolomeo Platina and Filippo Buonaccorsi. Rome was rife with political intrigue fomented by Roman barons and neighbouring princes, and Paul II (1464–71) arrested Pomponio and Academy leaders for irreligion, immorality, and conspiring against the pope. The prisoners were tortured, but eventually released.
16th and 17th centuries
The 16th-century region of Rome had many generally short-lived literary and aesthetic circles ("academies") inspired by the Renaissance. They included
Siena's theatrical Accademia degli Intronati; the 1530 Academy of the
vignaiuoli (vine-growers); the Academy
della virtù (1538), founded by
Claudio Tolomei under the patronage of Ippolito de' Medici, and Academies of the
intrepidi (1560), the
animosi (1576) and the
illuminati(1598). The Academy of Notti Vaticane (Vatican Nights) was founded by
Charles Borromeo.
Seventeenth-century academies included the Accademia degli Umoristi, the Fantastici (1625) and the Ordinati, founded by Cardinal Dati and Giulio Strozzi. The academies of the Infecondi, the Occulti, the Deboli, the Aborigini, the Immobili, the Accademia Esquilina, and others were founded near the turn of the 18th century. The newer academies were public bodies (rather than a small circle of friends), modeled on the French Academy founded by Cardinal Richelieu.
18th and 19th centuries
After the French Revolution and the restoration to Rome of the papal government, new academies were founded and old ones revived. The Accademia di Religione Cattolica and the Accademia Tiberina were founded under Pope Pius VII (1800–23), and the Immacolata Concezione in 1835. The Accademia Liturgica was reestablished in 1840, followed by the Accademia dei (Nuovi) Lincei seven years later.
Selected academies
Accademia dei Lincei (1603)
Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi (1690)
This literary academy was founded by Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni and Gian Vincenzo Gravina in memory of Queen Christina of Sweden, who abdicated the Swedish crown in 1654, converted to Catholicism and moved to Rome, where she spent much of the rest of her life as an artistic and musical patron. The Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi was established after her death in 1689, with Christina its symbolic head. The academy existed for two hundred years.
Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia
Accademia Filarmonica
The Accademia Filarmonica Romana was founded in 1821 for the study and practice of music.
Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, or Accademia di Musica, is a school of music founded in 1570 by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Nanini which was designated by Pope Gregory XIII as a confraternity (or congregation) in 1583. Subsequent popes supported the institution; Pope Urban VIII decreed that no musical works be published without its permission, and no school of music (or singing) should be opened in a church without the written permission of its deputies. The restrictions were soon ignored; Pope Innocent XI allowed the congregation to admit foreign members in 1684, and women were admitted as members in 1774. The congregation was suspended for political reasons from 1799 to 1803, and again from 1809 to 1822. Its members have included
Carissimi;
Frescobaldi, the organist;
Giuseppe Tartini, violinist and author of a new system of harmony; and pianist
Muzio Clementi.
Sources
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