**CRUSCA, ACCADEMIA della.** – It originated in 1582 and humorously took this name because, according to Rajna, its first five members considered themselves more like "crusca" (bran) than "farina" (flour); yet the sieve chosen as its emblem suggested that, as vigilant guardians of the language, the academicians wished to sift the flour from the bran. With Leonardo Salviati (from 1583 onward), the Academy received fresh impetus, though the general tone of its discussions remained frivolous or extravagant.
On March 6, 1591, the idea was first broached of compiling a *Vocabolario* containing words authoritatively attested by usage in the Trecento classics. The first volume appeared in 1612 in Venice, published by Giovanni Alberti under the care of Bastiano de’ Rossi. The second edition (Venice 1623) served as a model even for other nations; the third (3 vols., Florence 1648–91) shows many additions, later reproduced in the fourth edition (ibid., 1729–1738). In 1783 Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo suppressed the Academy, merging it into a single institution with other Florentine academies. It resumed its independence in 1811 by decree of Napoleon, as a body composed of 12 resident and 20 corresponding members. Work on the fifth edition of the Vocabolario began in 1842, but by 1923 they had reached only the letter O. In that same year the Academy’s constitution and composition were altered: publication of the Vocabolario was suspended and replaced by a series of critically edited texts and documents, together with a periodic bulletin of Italian philology. Under this new program the following have so far appeared: *Testi fiorentini del Duecento*, edited by A. Schiaffini (Florence 1926); critical editions of *Teseida*, edited by S. Battaglia (ibid. 1938), and of *Amorosa visione*, edited by V. Brancara (ibid. 1944); and seven substantial fascicles of *Studi di filologia italiana* (ibid. 1927–46). The Academy deserves credit—even if it incurred censure for its intransigence—for helping to preserve the unity and purity of the Italian linguistic organism.