CRUSCA, ACCADEMIA della. — It arose in 1582 and was humorously so named because the first five members, according to Rajna, unlike those of the Florentine Academy, considered themselves more people of bran than of flour; but the winnowing machine chosen as its emblem led people to think that, with it, the academicians, vigilant custodians of the good language, wished to separate the flour from the bran. With Leonardo Salviati (from 1583 onward), the Academy received new impetus, even though the general tone of the discussions remained empty or extravagant.
On 6 March 1591, there was the first discussion of compiling a Vocabulary containing words authoritatively sanctioned by the usage of the classics of the fourteenth century: the first volume appeared in 1612, in Venice, at the press of Giovanni Al-
