Academies

ACADEMIES. - Schools and free associations of learned men with literary or scientific aims, considered as radiating centers of study.

I. THE GREEK ACADEMIES.

A. is the name by which the school of Plato became fixed in history. After returning to Athens in 387, following the failure of his first political attempts at Syracuse, he founded his school on a property he bought at 6 stadia northwest of Athens. It is likely that the name derived from Ἀκάδημος, the eponymous hero of that region. The position was splendid: olives flourished there, which legend said were derived from the sacred olive made to grow by Minerva where the Erechtheum later rose. Plato had altars built in honor of Zeus, the Muses and Eros: the building was adorned with a great park entered through splendid avenues; the palaestra was magnificent. It is likely that the description of the place, as found at the beginning of the Phaedrus, as the scene in which the dialogue takes place, can be referred to the natural beauties of the A. Plato bound the possession to the school, and this maintained itself there, through changing fortunes, for about ten centuries, that is, until its closure, ordered in 520 A.D. by Justinian.

The school was governed by the scholarch; he was not, however, the only teacher, for there was no lack of lectures by assistants chosen as the most suitable for teaching within the school. It can be said that the whole of knowledge was the object of studies and research, from philosophy to the sciences, especially of a mathematical character and tone. Plato himself, who had drawn so much from Pythagoreanism - perhaps also the idea of a school resembling the Pythagorean contentus - gave the example of this, especially in the last phase of his thought, as can be inferred from his theory of idea-numbers.

Over so many centuries of life it is well understood how the direction marked out by Plato underwent oscillations, deviations and negations. Usually, the centuries-long life of the A. is divided into five periods, which Cicero and Varro, however, reduced to two: the old and the new A. The first period, after the direction of the founder, runs from Speusippus as scholarch (from 347 B.C., the year of Plato's death) to Arcesilaus (d. 241). In that period, Xenocrates (339-314), Polemo (314-270), Crates and Crantor succeeded one another in the direction. The direction of the A. in that first period, constituting for Cicero too the so-called old A., remained fairly coherent with the teachings of the founder, with emphasis first on Pythagorean mathematism, then on the moral problem, especially with Crates and Crantor. However, Plato's genius and impetus soon came to be lacking in these first successors of his, who devoted themselves rather to the organization and systematization of knowledge, from which emerged quite clearly the distinction between dialectic, physics and aesthetics, which in Plato are in a certain sense mingled.

The second A. begins with the scholarchate of Arcesilaus and also marks the beginning of the greatest deviation the school ever suffered, namely the deviation toward skepticism. With this scholarch began the conflict against Stoic epistemological dogmatism. It was in fact to the problem of knowledge that Arcesilaus directed his researches, to arrive at a position of doubt, remediable, for the purposes of action, by so-called common sense. Arcesilaus's direct successors, namely Lacydes, Telecles, Evander and Hegesinus, remained faithful to the new direction, which developed fully, that is, into explicit skepticism, only slightly tempered by a theoretical-practical probabilism, in Carneades (214-129), with whom the so-called third A. began, intended to combat decisively Stoic dogmatism, as it had asserted itself especially in Chrysippus.

The skeptical direction, more or less masked, lasted in the history of the A. also under the scholarchates of Carneades the younger, Crates of Tarsus, Clitomachus of Carthage. The so-called fourth A. began with the direct successor of Clitomachus (d. 110 B.C.), Philo of Larissa (d. 80 B.C.). He abandoned the position of explicit skepticism, without however arriving at a precise dogmatic conception: it was only a kind of compromise between the doubt of Carneades and Stoic epistemology, all reducing to the affirmation of a generic possibility of knowledge. The fifth A. was founded by Philo's successor, Antiochus of Ascalon, a friend of Cicero (d. 68 B.C.). That phase meant nothing but skepticism (the philosophical position of Cicero). Antiochus's purpose, in fact, was to demonstrate the substantial agreement between Academic, Peripatetic and Stoic doctrines.

We know very little of the later life of the A. as it continued through the first centuries after Christ; a full revival, undoubtedly worthy of the founder's intentions, occurred in the 5th century with Plutarch, Syrianus and especially with Proclus (410-85). This revival bears the mark of the great impulse given to reflective thought by the Neoplatonism of Plotinus. From this impulse, determined also by the aim of resolving religion into philosophy, there came great lustre to the A., which thus closed in a condition of researches and solutions far superior to what had been the philosophical travail of the school after Plato, between the negations of skepticism and the mortifications of eclecticism.

Paolo Rotta

II. GENERAL SURVEY OF MODERN ACADEMIES IN ITALY.

1. THE VARIOUS INSTITUTIONS

Humanism made use, in the 15th century, of free associations of learned men as centers for the dissemination of classical studies, thus giving rise to the modern academies. The reawakening of culture, the passion for ancient authors, the need to meet in order to communicate the results of studies and research, generated the gatherings - the "cenacles," as we would say today - which gradually took on the character of cultural associations with an organization and a hierarchy.

Among the first manifestations of this kind may be counted that of Cardinal Bessarion (c. 1440), if it can be called an academy. Bessarion's house became the meeting place of the most illustrious humanists of Greece and Italy. Typical and a model for others must be considered the academy founded (c. 1460) in Rome by the humanist Pomponio Leto, who, gathering around himself certain friends fervent in the cult of antiquity, gave life to the celebrated sodality called the Roman Academy (v. no. V, 3) or Pomponian, in which poetry, art, philosophy and philology were debated.

In various cities of Italy other academies arose at that time with a more or less brief life, owing to the fame and importance of the humanists residing there and to the favor of princes. To be remembered are the Pontanian Academy (v. no. V, 2) of Gioviano Pontano, formerly the Antoniana or of the Panormita, in Naples, which had the same orientation as the Pomponian; the Platonic Academy (v. no. V, 1) of Ficino in Florence, which with a new orientation set out to make the spirit of Plato absorbed by Christianity, and the Aldine Academy of Venice, which oriented itself toward archaeology and philology.

The humanists, even in the academies, camouflaged Christian customs and names with classical trappings; but they were not in general animated by an anti-Christian spirit.

Toward the middle of the 16th century the academies were radically transformed: with the decline of humanism the Italian language gradually took the place of Latin and the cultural aims of these sodalities kept broadening, with a literary predominance, however. The Accademia della Crusca (1582) (v.) had the merit of jealously promoting the cult of the national language.

In the 17th and 18th centuries the phenomenon of the diffusion of academies was accentuated, even in the small centers of the peninsula. They seconded the literary orientation of the time, and became verbose and declamatory in the 17th century and cloyingly pastoral in the 18th with the Arcadia (v.) and its numerous "colonies." Nevertheless, one cannot deny that the institution was, in its best manifestations, a vehicle of culture. In fact, particularly in Rome, such sodalities were considered as centers of study, not only literary, but historical, scientific, juridical, theological and artistic. Indeed, precisely in the 17th century, almost as compensation for the decline of letters, there occurred the glorious period of scientific research, which gave a new orientation and new aims to academic organizations with the Lincei (v. no. III, 3; no. V, 5) of Rome and the Cimento (v.) of Florence.

Meanwhile the mushrooming of academies kept multiplying. Maylender in his five volumes lists, giving more or less ample notice of them, as many as 2750, most of which existed in the 17th and 18th centuries. Of many, only the name and the emblem are known. The fortune and progress of most of these associations were tied to the life and personal activity of the founders; therefore of many it may be said that one knows how they were born, but not when and how they died.

Nor could it have been otherwise for those academies founded by cultured good-timers, for whom organization into a sodality was an occasion for cordial reunion, albeit seasoned with recitations of poetry and literary disquisitions. The very names bear witness to this: Accesi (many cities), Acerbi (Rome c. 1619), Animosi (Rome 1576, and various cities), Eccentrici (Perugia c. 1650), Intrepidi (Rome c. 1560 and various cities), Fulminati (Turin c. 1650), Innominati (various cities), Illuminati (Rome c. 1598), Umoristi (Rome c. 1500), Cioccolataria (Rome c. 1770, of which were members V. Monti, N. Spedalieri, Cardinal Pacca).

At the beginning of the 19th century the Revolution swept away in Italy the luxuriant academic vegetation. Only the most solid sodalities resisted, and in order to survive they merged with kindred institutions, orienting themselves especially toward history, philosophy, archaeology and the experimental sciences. Interest in academies in modern times kept steadily weakening, both because of the disrepute into which they had fallen and because of the rise of new and more dynamic forms of intellectual collaboration. The process of the unification of Italy then suppressed many small "cenacles" in the individual States, while it strengthened the most glorious academic trunks, giving them a more serious orientation and a far more authoritative voice in national culture. Let us recall the Royal Society of Naples, the Lombard, Venetian and Bolognese Institutes.

The academies have, as regards their functioning, a hierarchical organization, whose main lines are commonly: a head (called Prince, Custodian, Archconsul, President, etc.), a directing council and the members: honorary or full academicians, who usually upon entering the sodality assumed a name coined for the most part on classical models. There are periodic assemblies and their own social festivities. In past times heavenly patrons were not lacking and sometimes protectors, such as princes or cardinals. Each academy is distinguished by an emblem and a motto.

An original example of academic codification is the Linceografo (constitutions of the Lincei), written by the founder F. Cesi. It resembles the statutes of religious Orders: the academicians must "recte pieque simul vivere" and "rerum cognitionem et sapientiam adquirere" (Maylender, III, pp. 456-59).

2. THE ACADEMIES AND THE CHURCH

The most important and serious academies brought a real contribution to sacred, literary and scientific studies and to the arts. The Church therefore devoted particular care and interest to them. Many popes intervened with direct and solemn acts (constitutions, briefs) not only to regulate their life, but to erect new ones. Paul III, Pius IV and Paul V wished to be "virtuosi d'onore" of the Academy of the Virtuosi of the Pantheon (v. no. III, 5). The interest of the Supreme Pontiffs in the Arcadia (v.) is well known; following the example of Alexander VIII, many popes belonged to it with the title of "Pastore Massimo." Some academies owe their foundation to the initiative of prelates, secular and regular priests; others, by their specific purpose, were reserved to ecclesiastics, such as those of theology, law and Church history: these brought to the sacred sciences an increase worthy of note.

3. ROMAN AND PONTIFICAL ACADEMIES

Let us mention the most celebrated.

The A. delle Notti Vaticane was founded by St. Charles Borromeo (c. 1560) in imitation of the "Attic Nights" of Aulus Gellius. Borromeo, absorbed during the day by the affairs of the Church, gathered at night, in the house of St. Martha in the Vatican, ecclesiastics and laymen for the purpose of cultivating, with a moral intent, the study of letters and of attending to the exercise of preaching, which was then neglected by the high dignitaries of the Curia. The A. had illustrious members, among them the future Gregory XIII. Protected by its founder, even from Milan, it died out with his death.

In the edition of the Conelie of St. Charles (Augsburg 1750) are included his sermons delivered at the "Noctes Vaticanae," preceded by the Convivium Noctium Vaticanarum of Cardinal A. Valerio, bishop of Verona. Cardinal Federigo Borromeo, on the model of this a., founded (c. 1580) the A. degli Accurati of Pavia (Maylender, IV, pp. 78-81).

Pius V founded (1566) the A. dei Musici, which lasted until Pius IX; it then passed under the Italian government (1870) with the name A. di S. Cecilia (v. n. VI, 2). The A. di S. Luca (v. n. VI, 3) received particular attention from the pontiffs. Gregory XIII recognized it with a brief (13 Oct. 1577). Of the A. dei Concili there were - so to speak - two editions. The first, instituted (1632) at the church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian by P. A. Garini, for the treatment of historical, dogmatic and canonical themes. The second, more celebrated, founded by Monsignor G. G. Ciampini (1671), assembled in the college of Propaganda Fide to treat questions of ecclesiastical history in relation to the decisions of the councils. It was frequented by cardinals and prelates. Innocent XI held it dear; Benedict XIV ordered its renewal (Maylender, II, pp. 40-43).

A prelude to the A. reale of Christina of Sweden and to the Arcadia may be considered the A. degli Infecondi, which arose (1650) as a Marian sodality, which later had literary productions in honor of the Madonna. Prelates and other dignitaries were its "Princes." Alexander VII and Clement IX protected it. After the founding of the Arcadia it declined (Maylender, III, pp. 253-60).

The A. fisico-matematica, founded (1677) by Monsignor G. G. Ciampini, followed the direction of the Lincei. Its members were the most renowned professors of science in Rome. The most important scientific questions were treated there. A member was Monsignor Albani, later Pope Clement XI (Maylender, III, pp. 11-17).

Exclusively directed to theological studies was the A. dei Dogmi (1694), composed of ecclesiastics only (24 secular and 24 regular). It had its seat first at the church of S. Paolo alla Regola, then moved to the Sapienza. Dogmatic, moral and biblical themes were treated there. It had as its heavenly patron St. Paul, and as its protector a cardinal (Maylender, II, pp. 220-21).

Similar to this one, but more developed, was the A. teologica, founded and endowed with 10 thousand scudi by Abbot R. Girolami (1695), later approved, with its seat in the Archiginnasio of Rome and concessions of privileges, by Clement XI (constitution Inscrutabili, 23 Apr. 1718, in Bullarium Rom., XXI, Turin 1871, pp. 785-88). According to the cited constitution, to enroll in the A. it was necessary to have completed at least four years of theological studies. Two disputations were held weekly, alternately in theology and in ecclesiastical history. First a brief exposition of the question was given and then the discussion was carried on for an hour. The readers of theology of the Sapienza were by right censors of the A. The academicians were, coeteris paribus, preferred in the conferral of dignities and benefices in Rome and elsewhere. Benedict XIII, himself already an academician, confirmed and increased the privileges and founded 20 scholarships in favor of 20 poor priests to be enrolled in the sodality (constitution Inscedia Sedis Apostolicae, 6 May 1726, in Bullar. Rom., XXII, Turin 1871, pp. 349-52). Clement XIV, already cardinal protector, added to it the privilege of conferring each year, through the master of the Sacred Palace, a doctoral degree (constitution Ex commisso Nobis, 27 Apr. 1770, in Bull. Rom., Continuatio, V, Prato 1845, pp. 170-72). (Maylender, V, pp. 299-302).

A characteristic form, because reserved to a particular category of persons, had the A. degli Inaspettati (inaugurated in 1696), which had the purpose of filling the leisure hours of the secretaries of cardinals, ambassadors and high dignitaries, while awaiting their respective superiors during consistories or meetings. It had its seat in the sacristy of S. Carlo al Corso (Maylender, III, p. 185-86).

Under the auspices of Clement XI there arose in Bologna (1709) the A. Clementina for painters, sculptors and architects. With the constitution Militantis (18 Oct. 1711, in Bullar. Rom., XXI, pp. 440-50) it was assimilated to the secular universities of Bologna and its statutes were approved. The gonfaloniere of the city, in representation of the senate, was its protector; its patroness, St. Catherine de' Vigri; the academicians, "true and good Roman Catholics," besides the adjuncts, were 40. Every painter, newly aggregated, had to give a sample of his art by painting a picture. The A. could acquire and receive donations and legacies. Entrusted to it was the "public school of the nude."

Also in Bologna arose the Istituto delle Scienze, approved by Clement XI (1711) and enriched by Count F. L. Marsili "with rare instruments for mathematics and experimental philosophy, a museum of fossils, a library," etc. Later the A. degli Inquieti was aggregated to it, taking the name A. delle Scienze dell'Istituto bolognese (constitution Superni, 12 June 1715, in Bullar. Rom., XXI, pp. 681-694). In this constitution (loc. cit., p. 684) it is recalled that Clement XI "fostered the Roman A. degli Arcadi, exalted to its first degrees the A. di Roma of the three liberal arts of painting, sculpture and architecture." He appointed the Arcadian Cristoforo Battelli his librarian and secretary of briefs and gladly listened to the poetic productions of the Arcadians. He also gave a constitution to the A. di S. Luca, ordering as early as 1702 the exhibition of works on the Campidoglio with awarding of prizes in the presence of the Pope, the cardinals and the Arcadians, who recited speeches and poems.

Clement XI also founded (1701) the Pontificia A. dei Nobili Ecclesiastici, now A. Pontificia ecclesiastica (v. n. III, 6).

Great interest was brought to the a. by Benedict XIV, who renewed that of the Concili, founded by Ciampini, and instituted three new ones with a scientific direction: of Ecclesiastical History, of Roman History and Antiquities, of Liturgy. The members (12; for that of Roman History 14) chosen from among the learned, were nominated for the first time, together with the cardinal protectors and the secretaries, by the Pope. The sessions were monthly and the list of themes to be treated in Italian (for the A. dei Concili, with its seat at Propaganda, in Latin) was printed each year (Archiv. Stor. Ital., ser. 4a, 20 [1887], p. 369; reports on the first sessions of the year 1741). In 1745 the Pope, remaining invisible to the academicians, except to the speaker, attended for the first time a session of the A. di Storia ecclesiastica, at the Quirinale, and, subsequently, many meetings of the other a. At the end he conversed with the speaker and with those present on the theme treated. With praises and prizes the scientific seriousness of the treatments was encouraged.

L. A. Muratori greeted with applause the new a. and the appointment of learned men, such as Bianchini and Valesio, as secretaries, for the honor that would derive from it to the Holy See.

Benedict XIV also encouraged the project of the Spanish government to found an a. for the study of the ecclesiastical history of the Iberian peninsula and made archival sources available.

We give a separate mention of the three a.:

The A. di Storia ecclesiastica, with its seat at the Fathers of the Oratory, where Baronio wrote the celebrated Annali, contributed to the reawakening of historical studies on the Church and on the popes, with many series of publications by academicians, such as the history of Paul IV by the Theatine B. Carrara, the biography of Sixtus V by the Franciscan C. Tempesta, the biography of Nicholas V by the Augustinian D. Giorgi.

L. A. Muratori addressed (5 Nov. 1740) to Msgr. Bianchini, first secretary of this Academy, precious advice on how to treat ecclesiastical history (Epp., ed. Campori, IX, 4074); the Academy should have the necessary freedom, the deeds of the popes may indeed be glorified, but without adulation; a healthy criticism of books, authors, and readers should be permitted. «Better it is — Muratori continues — that we ourselves tell the truth, rather than hear it told with mockery by our enemies... I see the immortal Baronio who goes quite boldly many times. By the grace of God the holy Church has no need of lies, nor does she fear the truth.

The Academy of Roman History and Antiquities (or Archaeology) had its seat on the Capitoline, and died out with the death of the founding Pope. It was restored by Napoleon I. Pius VII endowed it from the public treasury; Pius VIII and Gregory XVI too were generous with help and encouragement. Besides its own meetings, it held a solemn annual one together with the Academy of St. Luke on 21 April (cf. Maylender, V, pp. 36-38). Today it still lives under the name Pontifical Roman Academy of Archaeology (v. n. III.4).

The Academy of Liturgy received from Benedict XIV a historical-scientific direction.

Benedict XIV furthermore instituted for poor youths another special school, a «gymnasium publicum seu academia» of painting and sculpture, called «of the nude», with its seat on the Capitoline (constitution Inter curat, 17 March 1754, in Bullat. Bened. XIV, III, II, Prato 1847, pp. 178-81). This school followed in its wanderings the Academy of St. Luke, to which it was entrusted (G. Collini, Notizia delle e, mette in Roma per ordine della S. d. N. S. papa Benedetto XIV, Rome 1740).

The Academy of the Aborigines, founded by Canon F. Turris, was approved by Pius VI and inaugurated on 13 Oct. 1777 under the aegis of Mary Most Holy and St. Thomas Aquinas. For its purpose of cultivating literary, scientific, theological, and canonical studies, it may be called of a mixed type. Its emblem: a reed shaken by the wind. Motto: Sto quia debilis, later changed to Agitata stresco. It had great diffusion and, like the Arcadia, also «colonies». Many cardinals were enrolled in it, among them Giacinto Gerdil under the name Solon of Athens (Maylender, I, pp. 7-23).

The Academy of the pious Union of St. Paul was not a true academy, but had an academic organization. Founded in 1799 and approved by Pius VI (1797), it had as its purpose the study of the sacred sciences. Pius VII approved it under the name «Branch of the ecclesiastical student members of the Union of St. Paul» (constitution Ex quo aeternae, 30 Aug. 1822, in Bull. Rom. Continuatio, VII, II, Prato 1852, pp. 2280-86). The priest Marquis F. Filonardi endowed it with an income of 2000 scudi a year (Maylender, V, pp. 292-394).

It thus appears that the academies overlapped, often losing the clear distinction of purposes; often they languished after a brief period of flourishing, owed to the enthusiasm of the founders. An intervention of authority was therefore necessary to eliminate associations no longer vital and to prevent new foundations. Leo XII then regulated the proliferating Roman academies, dedicating to them title XXVII of the constitution Quod divina Sapientia (28 Aug. 1824, in Bull. Rom. Contin., VIII, Prato 1854, pp. 95-117), with which he instituted the Congregation of Studies, to whose control he subjected the academies with the following provisions: 1) no new academies of sciences, letters, and arts may be erected without the authorization of the aforesaid Sacred Congregation; 2) the existing academies, in order to continue to live, must be confirmed by the same Sacred Congregation; 3) the academies of the arts and of Christian archaeology shall continue to be subject to the Cardinal Chamberlain; in the academies religion, good morals, and the social order shall be respected.

Nevertheless, the following associations that arose in the 19th century are to be remembered.

The Academy of the Catholic Religion was instituted (1800) with the purpose of defending religion, particularly against the errors spread by the French Revolution. Pius VII recognized it with the brief Perlatum ad Nos (27 Jan. 1801, in Bull. Rom. Contin., VII, I, Prato 1850, p. 93). Pius XI united it (10 Jan. 1934) with the Roman Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas (v. n. III, 2).

The Tiberine Academy was founded by Abbot Gaetano Celie and a group of friends (1813). Its purpose was to cultivate historical studies on Rome and to compile a civil history from Odoacer to Clement XIV. It was respected by the restrictive laws of Leo XII by virtue of its vitality; it even had the approval of the Sacred Congregation of Studies so that it might orient itself toward agriculture, the arts, and commerce. In 1838 it better defined its direction: to cultivate the sciences, letters, and studies concerning Rome, to promote agriculture with particular regard to the Roman Campagna. It had a great number of publications and pamphlets. From 1860 it adorned itself with the title «pontifical» (Maylender, V, pp. 310-317).

The Latin Academy was instituted (1814) in Rome by a group of men of letters, among them various prelates, with the purpose of cultivating and spreading the study of Latin. Gregory XVI and many cardinals were members of it.

The Academy of the Quirites was founded (1821) by V. Diotallevi with the purpose of cultivating «every branch of sciences, letters, and liberal arts». In 1865 the Quirites (Section of sacred sciences) were attending to the compilation of the Acta RR. Pontificum. Also in their plans was the preparation of a Universal History and of a Latin dictionary. It was suppressed for political reasons in 1867 (Maylender, IV, pp. 359-60).

The Academy of the Immaculate Conception of the B. V. Mary gathered, from its beginnings (1835), men of sciences, letters, and arts, who offered to Mary the homage of their knowledge. Pius IX decorated it with the title «pontifical» (17 Jan. 1865), wished to be a member of it, and presided over the solemn annual session. Benedict XV reorganized it, giving it new impetus. Academicians and students of Mariology have held annual courses of conferences there since 1943, making the Academy a center of Marian studies: Studium Mariae.

Among the eight pontifical academies listed in the Annuario pontificio as living, a place is also held by the Collegium Cultorum Martyrum.

For information and assessments concerning the influence of the academies on national culture, see the volumes of the Storia letteraria d'Italia, published by Fr. Vallardi; F. Flamini, Il Cinquecento, Milan 1902; G. Toffanin, Il Cinquecento, ibid. 1929; A. Belloni, Il Seicento, ibid. 1929; G. Natali, Il Settecento, ibid. 1929; V. Rossi, Il Quattrocento, 3rd ed., ibid. 1933.

Francesco Tinello

III. PONTIFICAL ACADEMIES.

1. PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF LITURGY

Founded by Benedict XIV in 1748, but having lapsed after his death, it rose again in 1840, at the Casa della Missione at Montecitorio, receiving from Gregory XVI an annual allowance (rescript of 28 Sept. 1842). The original academic form of the meetings, with the reading of purely historical and erudite dissertations, was then changed by introducing the discussion of practical liturgical questions, as the Council celebrated by Benedict XIII had also prescribed for the Roman clergy. In 1854 the Academy received its own regulations. Placed under the presidency of the cardinal vicar pro tempore and directed by a priest of the Mission, it is made up of academicians (secular and regular priests, in an undetermined number) and of censors (forty at most), who express at the meetings their own opinion (censura) on the solutions proposed by the former. An epitome concludes the discussions. The Academy now meets twelve times a year at the Collegio Leoniano. The questions to be discussed are published at the beginning of the year and the solutions are printed in the review Ephemerides liturgicae.

Nello Vian

2. PONTIFICAL ROMAN ACADEMY OF ST. THOMAS AQUINAS AND OF CATHOLIC RELIGION

The Academy was founded by Leo XIII on 15 Oct. 1879, with the aim of promoting the study of Thomistic philosophy, in conformity with the program traced a few months earlier in the encyclical Aeterni Patris (4 Aug. 1879); and its constitution and activity were subsequently regulated by acts of the same Pontiff (9 May 1895), of Pius X (23 Jan. 1904), of Benedict XV (31 Dec. 1914) and of Pius XI (10 Jan.

1934), who merged with it the Academy of Catholic Religion, founded in 1801. In 1945 the academicians, who reside in Rome and elsewhere, were increased in number and distributed into three sections: theological, philosophical, juridical-economic (these last disciplines not previously represented). Since Dec. 1942, the Academy has had its seat in the Palazzo della Cancelleria Apostolica.

The history of the Academy is bound up with that of the restoration of Thomistic philosophy in the second half of the 19th century, and among its members are found the most representative figures of that renewal (among the many:

Giuseppe Pecci, Tommaso Zigliara, Francesco Satolli, Benedetto Lorenzelli, Giuseppe Prisco, Desiderato Mercier, Ludovico Billot, later cardinals; and furthermore, Giovanni Maria Cornoldi, Matteo Liberatore, Tommaso Gaudenzi, Nunzio Signoriello, Salvatore Talamo, Guido Mattiussi, Alberto Lepidi, Edoardo Hugon, Tommaso Pègues, etc.). It once had the faculty of erecting chairs of Thomistic philosophy in the various universities and colleges of Rome and of conferring academic degrees. It aggregates to itself certain other Thomistic academies and announces prize competitions. Among the most important recent manifestations of its activity are to be remembered the Weeks of Thomistic studies (19-25 Nov. 1923) and Augustinian-Thomistic studies (23-30 Apr. 1930), the first and second International Thomistic Congress (held respectively from 15 to 20 Apr. 1925 and from 23 to 28 Nov. 1936), a Week of studies on existentialism (8-13 Apr. 1947).

It published from 1880 to 1889 the half-yearly periodical L'A. romana di s. Tommaso d'Aquino, which was briefly merged with La scienza italiana of the Bolognese Thomistic Academy, and then took the form of an annual volume of proceedings, ceasing in '95.

In 1934 the Acta Pontificiae Academiae s. Thomae Aquinatis et Religionis catholicae were begun, annual. A general index of this new series is found in vol. 9 (1944). Since 1948 a four-monthly periodical has been published, with the title Doctor Communis, Acta et commentationes.

Nello Vian

3. PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

The present Pontifical Academy of Sciences, reconstituted by Pius XI with the motu proprio: In multis solaciis (28 Oct. 1936), traces its distant origin to the Academy of the Lincei founded in 1603 in Rome by the young prince Federico Cesi and three of his companions, Giovanni Heck, Francesco Stelluti and Anastasio De Filiis, with the aim of promoting the study of the natural sciences and relations among the learned of various countries. A highly religious and moral conception informed the institution, which chose the emblem of the Lynx and the motto: Sagacius ista. This first Academy, which developed especially after 1609, received from Cesi, elected its prince, its seat in his own palace, an endowment of instruments of research, funds for the printing of works. In 1610 it had the glory of welcoming as a member Galileo, of whose discoveries it made itself a propagator. But such activity did not go much beyond the life of the founder, who died in 1630. A restoration of the Academy at the hands of Benedict XIV, in 1740, is not certain; attempts to revive it were made later privately, until the Popes took it under their protection. Leo XII in 1826 assigned it a seat on the Capitoline, ordering the construction of an observatory. In 1838 Gregory XVI declared the Academy pontifical, and Pius IX, in a new restoration of 1847, confirmed its title of the "New Lincei". The Italian State, in 1870, regarded the institution as its own, naming it the "National Academy of the Lincei" (v. n. V, 5), while the Pontifical one continued to carry on its activity in reduced form. Leo XIII fixed at 40 the number of ordinary members, among whom were also those not resident in Rome. Pius XI, finally, with the act cited above, renewed the ancient Academy, to which together with the name he gave new statutes. The academicians number seventy, appointed by pontifical nomination; they belong to different nations and include also non-Catholics. They bear the title of "excellency". To these are added certain supernumeraries, by reason of their office (prefects of the Vatican Library and Archive, of the Astrophysical Laboratory of the Vatican Observatory, directors of the Pontifical Lateran Ethnological Missionary Museum and of the Vatican Observatory). The Academy promotes the study and progress of the physical, mathematical and natural sciences and of their history. Since 1922 it has had its seat in the Casina of Pius IV in the Vatican gardens.

The academic activity is carried on through the publication of the two principal series: Acta and Commentationes. After the war a series of reports on the scientific progress achieved in the various fields has been undertaken, with the title: Relationes de auctis scientiis tempore belli 1939-45. The A. holds special study conferences and promotes the development of the sciences by various other means. The Pontiff himself usually attends the inaugural meetings.

Nello Vian

4. PONTIFICAL ROMAN ACADEMY OF ARCHAEOLOGY

It is an ancient tradition that the A. has its distant origin in the fifteenth-century academy of Pomponius Laetus (v. n. V, 3). In fact it was instituted in 1740 by Benedict XIV (together with three others), and was entitled A. delle romane antichità; but already in the inaugural address delivered by the member Ridolfino Venuti on the Capitoline on 1 February 1741, there was talk of a renewed A., and in a Notizia delle A. erette in Roma per ordine della Santità di N. S. Papa Benedetto decimoquarto (Rome 1740), it is explicitly regarded as a restoration of the Pomponian one. It had its seat first on the Capitoline and immediately afterwards at the Quirinal; and the learned pontiff frequently attended its sessions, unseen. Its activity is scantily recorded in the Argomenti de' discorsi da farsi, in the various academies, of Benedict XIV, following the aforementioned Notizia (and then in separate pamphlets for the years from 1742 to 1756, except 1745, 1749 and 1753), and in the Dissertazioni sopra vari punti interessanti d'istoria romana, dell'abate Gaetano Cenni, raccolte e pubblicate ora per la prima volta da Gio. Bartolomeo Colti nipote dell'autore (in two volumes, Pistoia 1778-1779: not all of an antiquarian character). After the death of Benedict XIV, it seems that this A. too, like the others, ceased its activity. Only on 4 October 1810 did it come back to life through the work of the Lyonese philosopher and statesman Baron de Gerando (or Degerando), under the Napoleonic domination of Rome: the Statuti dell'A. Romana di Archeologia (Rome 1813) were then printed; its coat of arms was designed and its motto chosen. Its seat was first the Palazzo Corsini, then the Capitoline. When Pius VII returned to Rome, the A. passed once again under the protection of the popes; in 1829, Pius VIII granted it the title of pontifical. Gregory XVI assigned it a seat in the hall of the Archiginnasio. In recent times it has had various seats, among them the Palazzo della Cancelleria Apostolica, where it has lastly returned to settle.

The A. has as its principal field of study classical antiquity, but often its researches extend on one side as far as prehistory, on the other as far as the Renaissance. The members are divided into honorary, effective (to a maximum number of thirty, of any nationality but resident in Rome) and corresponding (Italians and foreigners, to a maximum number of one hundred and twenty, of whom thirty resident). Protector is the Cardinal Secretary of State and honorary president the Supreme Pontiff. The A. meets every month, from November to June, in public scientific sessions, during which no fewer than two dissertations are presented. Prize competitions are announced (at present three). The emblem of the A. is the so-called temple of Vesta in the Forum Boarium, with the motto: In apricum proferet.

The dissertations are disseminated in the Rendiconti and in the Memorie; the former, published regularly every year, had reached by 1928 the twenty-second volume; the latter, the seventh. These publications constitute the third series. The two preceding ones, with the title Dissertazioni, run respectively from 1821 to 1864 and from 1881 to 1920, each of them in fifteen volumes. A general index of the dissertations from 1821 to 1938, by authors and subjects, is published in the fourteenth volume of the Rendiconti of the third series. For the dissertations of the old Academy, see above.

Filippo Magi

5. PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF THE VIRTUOSI AT THE PANTHEON

Founded in 1543 as a Congregation on the initiative of Desiderio d'Adiutorio, a Cistercian monk, with the adherence of a group of artists, among them Antonio da Sangallo and Pierin del Vaga, it had its seat, which it still keeps, in the Pantheon, in a chapel to which other rooms were added. The statute was read and approved in 1546, and the members were designated by the title of "Virtuosi" insofar as they "professed the fine arts for the decorum and in the glory of the Faith." The choice of the Pantheon was not unconnected with the fact that a few years earlier the body of Raphael had been buried there, and he may well be called the tutelary genius of the institution. A characteristic activity of the Academy was an annual exhibition of paintings on the occasion of the feast of its patron St. Joseph. The society, which over the centuries has been honored by the names of the greatest artists, lived with alternating fortunes reflected in successive statutes, by one of which (1928) the Holy See raised it to an Academy. The present statute, published in 1947, establishes the name "Pontificia Insigne A. Artistica dei Virtuosi al Pantheon" and specifies as its purpose: "to foster the study, exercise and perfecting of the fine arts, with particular regard to sacred art, and to promote the spiritual elevation of artists," a purpose that is carried out through meetings, competitions and lectures. The Academy is placed under the protection of a cardinal, and is composed of academic Virtuosi of merit and of honor; those of merit are divided into two groups: resident and corresponding, each of 60 members, distributed into four classes: 1) architects; 2) painters; 3) sculptors; 4) musicians, archaeologists, historians, liturgists, etc. Women may also be members. Since 1945, in addition to the seat at the Pantheon, it has rooms in the Palazzo della Cancelleria.

Antonio Bruers

6. PONTIFICAL ECCLESIASTICAL ACADEMIES

Formerly entitled Pontificia A. dei nobili ecclesiastici, it is an institute of higher studies under the direct dependence of the Secretariat of State of His Holiness, with the purpose of preparing young ecclesiastics for the diplomatic service of the Holy See. Erected in 1701 by Clement XI, it received from Pius VI the faculties of theology, law and history. Leo XIII reorganized its studies, giving them the peculiarly diplomatic character that they still retain. It was assigned by Pius XI, in 1937, as cardinal protector, the Secretary of State "pro tempore," and it is directed by a president. The students, after graduating in canon law, follow there a two-year course of studies, at the end of which they obtain the diploma that qualifies them for the service of the Secretariat of State as "attachés."

The A. Ecclesiastica has given the Church four pontiffs: Clement XIII, Leo XII, Leo XIII, Benedict XV, and a long series of distinguished personalities among them the cardinals Consalvi, Pacca, Rampolla, Merry del Val, Maglione. The pontiff Pius XII taught diplomacy there and was its cardinal protector.

Paolo Savino

IV. ECCLESIASTICAL ACADEMIES IN RUSSIA.

They were founded under Peter the Great with the character of true universities of theological studies. Their number, somewhat varied, was always very limited. When in 1917 the Bolshevik revolution abolished the tsarist institutions, the four academies then existing — those of Kiev, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan — were suppressed.

A. of Kiev. — In 1627 Peter Mogila, still archimandrite, founded there his "college," recognized by Poland in 1635. To the humanistic studies were added in 1685 those of philosophy, and in 1690 those of theology. With the annexation of Kiev to the Russian Empire, the Academy was given the title of "A. Ecclesiastica," which was preserved until the end of the tsarist regime. The Academy of Kiev was the principal center of ecclesiastical studies of the Russian dissidents, since the professors of the others were also trained there.

A. of Moscow. — The patriarch Philaret opened in Moscow in 1619 a "Greco-Latin School," which in 1685 through the work of the Likhudes brothers became the "Greek Academy," then in 1700 the "Latin Academy" or "Slavo-Latin Academy." Finally in 1815 it took the definitive title of "A. Ecclesiastica": in reality it had already been so since 1700.

A. of St. Petersburg. — It appeared in 1721 as a modest "Slavic School." Catherine I transformed it into a Slavo-Greco-Latin Seminary. In 1797 it obtained university privileges with the title of "Academy of Alexander Nevsky" or "A. Ecclesiastica," as it began to be called from 1809.

A. of Kazan. — The tsar Paul I granted the title of Academy to the Seminary of Kazan, founded by the metropolitan Tikhon in 1723: having lost the title shortly afterward, it regained it in 1842.

The number of students of the academies was always very small. But its professors and pupils had great influence in Russian ecclesiastical life. The academies were subject to the Ecclesiastical Regulation of Peter the Great. Indeed their history is a succession of reforms of an ever more liberal and secularizing tendency.

The academies remained closed from the advent of Bolshevism until 1945, when the reopening of those of Moscow and Leningrad with a small number of students was authorized by the Soviet government.

Maurizio Gordillo

V. LITERARY, PHILOSOPHICAL AND SCIENTIFIC ACADEMIES.

1. PLATONIC ACADEMY

The revival of humanistic studies in the 15th century also brought about the rebirth of academies in the Greek sense. Thus there arose in Florence the Academy later called Platonic, promoted by Cosimo the Elder, and whose head was Marsilio Ficino (1433-99). Francesco de' Vieri in the Compendio della dottrina di Platone (Florence 1577) recounts that "Great Cosimo," hearing several times the Greek philosopher George Gemistus, called Plato, dispute "of the most lofty Platonic mysteries," was enraptured, and conceived the idea of reviving the Platonic Academy in Florence. To Marsilio Ficino in 1463 he gave the task of translating all the works of Plato and also thought of giving him a tranquil refuge, donating to him the villa of Montevecchio at Careggi. Ficino called his villa an Academy: and on Nov. 7, 1474, he celebrated there with nine Platonists, as many as the Muses, the commemoration of Plato, which was repeated annually. "Academicians" or "Academica familia" were the names given to those who frequented it. In the mind of Ficino, "pater platonicae familiae," the ancient Athenian Academy had thus risen again around him, Plato redivivus. But in the consciousness of contemporaries and of the members themselves those gatherings were nothing other than one of the many erudite meetings by then customary in Florence. There participated not only the faithful of Plato, but also philosophers of other schools, men of letters, jurists, poets, statesmen and scientists. Ficino himself lists them in a letter to Martin Preminger, chancellor of the bishop of Constance. They were Poliziano, Lorenzo the Magnificent, the geographer Francesco Berlinghieri, Pier Leoni da Spoleto the physician, Naldo Naldi, Ugolino Verini, Giovanni Neri, Pier Soderini, Amerigo Corsino and others. Few, therefore, were the philosophers, and of them only one left lasting traces in the history of thought, Giovanni Pico count of Mirandola and of Concordia.

The Florentine Academy, which reached its greatest splendor during the youth of Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici, lived until 1522, rising again later under the name and the different nature of the "Crusca." Through its work, in the name of Plato, the philosophical revival was accomplished in Tuscany. Platonism had reached Florence as early as 1396 with the arrival of Manuel Chrysoloras, and better in 1423, through the return from Constantinople of Aurispa and Traversari, with the first complete Plato and the principal Neoplatonists. Leonardo Bruni then and other humanists, with partial translations, had procured at least a philological knowledge of Plato, while George Gemistos celebrated his divine speculative virtue. Nevertheless Card. Bessarion, even after 1460, could say that Plato was almost unknown in Italy. Marsilio Ficino, translator and interpreter of the Athenian philosopher, elaborated his doctrine philosophically and instilled it, thus elaborated, into the original development of the Italian spirit. In the Theologia platonica, which is his greatest work, he strove to fuse Platonism and Christianity, yet achieving "a Platonizing of Christianity," dangerous in that it ended "by drowning Christianity in the common natural religion."

2. PONTANIAN ACADEMY

Founded in Naples under the auspices of Alfonso of Aragon, it had as its founder Antonio Beccadelli, called il Panormita from his native city (Panormus, Palermo), who hosted the academicians in his house on via dei Tribunali or in his villa "Plinianus" at Resina, or gathered them in that Porticus Antoniana which preserved the name of Panormita himself. It was a center of essentially philological studies, less paganizing and closer to contemporary life than the Florentine and Roman Academies. Panormita led the discussions, enlivening them with his wit, and at his death, in 1471, as head of the Academy he was succeeded by Giovanni (Giovanni) Pontano, legislator and organizer of the society, the most original poet of the humanistic period. The Academy, from Alfonsina, was thus called Pontaniana. It gathered the best minds of the Kingdom: Sannazzaro, named Actius Syncerus; Gabriele Altilio, elegant Latin poet and author of a famous epistolary; Tristano Caracciolo and Acquaviva, warrior and man of letters together. With these and with many others in the new seat on via del Purgatorio ad Arco, Michele Marullo, Pietro Summonte, editor of Pontano's works, Luigi Galluccio and the physician of Ferdinand I, Antonio de Ferrariis, convened. Pontano, revered and loved as a master, "exercised an effective action on the literary inclinations and intellectual directions of all." His dialogues reflect those gatherings and those discussions. When he died, the Academy declined; it flourished again later with Jacopo Sannazzaro and with Scipione Capece, to dissolve toward the middle of the sixteenth century. It rose again finally during the reign of Joachim Murat, but with a changed direction.

3. ROMAN ACADEMY

It was instituted by Giulio Pomponio Leto, illegitimate descendant of the Sanseverino princes of Salerno, in his house on the bank of the Tiber. Humanists of various temperaments, with Latinized names, convened there to discuss art, philology, philosophy and archaeology. All devoted to the cult of the classical world, they considered themselves ancients reborn; they dated their writings ab urbe condita, and each year they celebrated April 21, the day traditionally held to be the founding of Rome. Each member was "sacerdos Academiae Romanae" and their head assumed the title of "Pontifex maximus." After Pomponio Leto, who was the animator, Bartolomeo Sacchi da Pisdena, called therefore il Platina, distinguished himself in the Roman Academy; he attended to the History of Mantua, to the life of Enea Silvio Piccolomini, and to that Liber de vita Christi ac omnium Pontificum which more than anything else commends his name. And with Platina are to be remembered Filippo Buonaccorsi da S. Gimignano who assumed the name Callimaco Esperiente and Marcantonio Cocci da Vicovaro called il Sabellico. In their love for antiquity they did not disdain even Christian antiquities. Giambattista De Rossi drew from the catacombs of Callistus and Priscilla some inscriptions which attest that the academicians had visited those places. Perhaps they thus enacted that contemporaneity of Christian and pagan which was in their spirit. It seemed nevertheless that the Roman humanists wished to renounce Christianity in order to resume pagan idolatry. In reality, if the tone of the Academy was openly paganizing, the religious problem was not truly confronted by those humanists; it was rather "an attitude that today we would call aestheticism." Except that, in 1468 they were accused of conspiring against the Pope and of wanting to remove Rome "from the subjection of the priests," and by order of Paul II, himself already little favorable to Humanism, Leto and Platina were imprisoned. The Academy was thus dissolved. It was reconstituted later under the pontificate of Sixtus IV, in a house that Pomponio Leto had on the Quirinal and where he collected ancient works of art, inscriptions and manuscripts; the academicians resumed their rites, and each year celebrated the Poliliae; but they took care to return with greater caution to the original direction, mitigating that superstitious and exaggerated cult of antiquity.

4. SCIENTIFIC ACADEMIES

To the first examples of the fifteenth-century philosophical and literary academies were added, in the sixteenth century and even more in the seventeenth, the scientific ones, of which the Academy of Secrets, founded in Naples by G. B. della Porta (1545?-1615) may be considered the first significant example. The name was determined by the fact that only those who had discovered some "secret" or special finding, which brought utility to medicine or to science, were admitted. The Academy of Secrets, however, did not have a long life, nor did it in reality prove meritorious in the scientific field, for which it must be considered as a simple sketch of what was later to have quite another development.

In the seventeenth century the need to unite the forces of several elements to attempt problems of difficult solution with a spirit free from scholastic ties, and that of regulating their own research plans according to criteria dictated by the common desire for speculation, gave a greater and more valid impulse to academic development.

The first truly worthy scientific academy was the one called dei Lincei (v. below). Chronologically, there followed the one called del Cimento (v.). Abroad, in 1645 a society was founded in London that took the name degli Invisibili, through the work of Hook, Hartlieb, Boyle, Wren, Peltz and others, but it acquired real scientific value when Charles II in 1662 changed it into the Royal Society, uniting the Philosophical Society of Oxford and that of the Invisibili. Its publication was the periodical Philosophical Transactions, begun in 1665.

In France, Cardinal A.-G. de Richelieu founded in Paris in 1635 the Académie Française, an institution that, however, had no scientific purpose, while in 1665 G. B. Colbert founded the Académie des Sciences.

In Germany, at Erfurt, G. Lorenzo Bausch founded in 1652 a Gesellschaft naturforschender Aerzte, which in 1677 was transformed into the celebrated A. Leopoldino Carolina Cesarea naturae curiosorum.

These first academies were followed by very many others.

The rise of scientific academies coincides with that critical moment in which the new current had its first contact with religious thought; a moment of exceptional importance, poorly interpreted by those who would draw from it general observations, deducing from them an inhibitory action of the Church with respect to scientific progress. For the Church, which had too recently had the example of what an excessively free interpretation could produce (the Lutheran heresy), it was entirely fitting to be on guard against any movement that might introduce undesirable repercussions in the theological field. Hence that initial attitude, which was marked by diffidence, is explained. But this attitude, once intentions were clarified, would soon change into acceptance and support, to the point of making the very principles of the Church promoters and even founders of scientific academies.

5. ACADEMIES NATIONAL OF THE LYNCEANS

For the earlier history v. P. A. delle Scienze. The present historical phase dates back to 1871 when, Rome having become the capital of Italy, the name of the ancient society was restored, on the initiative of Quintino Sella, with the new designation of nazionale.

The statute (14 Feb. 1875) added to the Class of physical and mathematical sciences that of moral, historical and philological sciences. In 1883 the Government ceded for the use of the academy the Palazzo Corsini, a building by the architect Fuga (18th century), which also houses the Corsiniana Library and the Cabinet of Prints, donated to the academy by Prince Tommaso Corsini. To the Corsiniana must be added the academy's own collection, perhaps the richest in scientific periodicals in Europe, and the Orientalist collection of the Caetani Foundation, owed to the munificence of D. Leone Caetani (1923). Reforms of the institute took place in 1883, 1920, 1925, 1934-35, until, by decree of 8 June 1939, the Lincei were absorbed by the A. d'Italia (v. below). After the fall of Fascism, the latter was suppressed and its patrimony and functions were devolved upon the restored A. dei Lincei (D. L. L. 28 Sept. 1944, no. 359 and 28 Sept. 1944, no. 363). By decree of 16 Nov. 1945 a new category of "critics of the arts and letters" was introduced into the Class of moral sciences.

At present the academy is governed by its old statute of 15 Jan. 1920, modified by decree of 1 Oct. 1925; and it is composed of the two aforementioned Classes, each of which consists of 72 national members, 72 corresponding members and 72 foreign members, distributed in five categories in the first and in six in the second. The council of the presidency is made up of a president, a vice-president, two additional secretaries, an administrator and an additional administrator. The academy, recognized as an autonomous moral body, enjoys a financial allocation in the budget of the Ministry of Public Education. Thanks to gifts and bequests from institutions and private individuals, the academy administers foundations, grants prizes, announces competitions, promotes conferences. Among the foundations, the "Alessandro Volta", the "Feltrinelli" and the "Donegani" are conspicuous.

Since 1870 the academy has published seven series of Rendiconti and of Memorie of the Class of physical sciences and of the Class of moral sciences, and furthermore six series of Notizie degli scavi di antichità. Other notable publications, either on its own or entrusted to publishers: the Monumenti antichi, a collection begun in 1890, the Atti delle Assemblee costituzionali italiane, the Classici greci e latini, the Forma Urbis Romae, the Codice Atlantico di Leonardo, etc.

6. ROYAL ACADEMIES OF ITALY

Established in Rome on 7 Jan. 1926, inaugurated on 28 Oct. 1929, suppressed on 28 Sept. 1944. Its purpose was "to promote and coordinate the Italian intellectual movement", through a series of activities specified by the first article of the statute, among which: to give opinions to the government on the most important problems of culture, to promote explorations, to confer prizes and scholarships, to assist deserving scholars with subsidies and pensions. It was divided into four classes: moral and historical sciences; physical, mathematical and natural sciences; letters; arts. Each class was made up of 15 academicians, increased in 1939 to 20. The academicians were considered grand officers of the State. Cardinal Gasparri and Mons. Perosi were also members of the body. Attached to the academy arose, through the munificence of institutions and private individuals, conspicuous institutions: the Foundations: "Volta", promoter of the "Convegni internazionali Volta", "Feltrinelli", "Novaro", and other lesser ones; the centres of study for Italian East Africa, for Albania, for Italian Switzerland. Under the patronage of the academy important explorations took place in Africa and those of G. Tucci in Tibet. Its publishing activity took shape in twenty collections of scientific, literary and artistic works. As its seat the State had ceded in ownership to the academy the villa "Farnesina", famous for its frescoes by Raphael. In 1939 the A. d'Italia had absorbed that of the Lincei; but in 1944 the reverse process took place: the A. d'Italia was suppressed; its patrimony, activities and functions were devolved upon the reconstituted A. Nazionale dei Lincei (v. above).

VI. ARTISTIC AND MUSICAL ACADEMIES.

1. ARTISTIC ACADEMIES

This name was given, toward the end of the sixteenth century, to the art schools that, replacing the old workshops, certain artists opened in their studios (for example the Academy of the Incamminati, kept in Bologna by the Carracci). More specifically, however, the name academies was given to those associations of artists which, taking up the heritage of the ancient universities, companies and studios, set themselves the advancement and study of the fine arts. Recognized by pontiffs and rulers, they were often invested with public functions.

In Florence, from the ancient company of St. Luke, the Academy of Drawing was born in 1563. In 1573 a similar one arose in Perugia. Above all of them stands the Roman Academy of St. Luke, which arose from a pre-existing university of painters that, with statutes of 1479, aimed especially at religious purposes and mutual assistance. This Academy was recognized in 1577 by Gregory XIII, and Urban VIII sanctioned its functions as a magistracy overseeing the various artistic corporations; its statutes date back to 1592, when Federico Zuccari was its president. Under Canova it obtained the official teaching of art and maintained it until 1874.

In the 1600s and 1700s almost all the cities of Italy wanted their own academy; let us recall Turin (Albertina Academy), Bologna (Clementina Academy), Lucca, Venice, Genoa, Parma, Verona, Carrara, Milan (Brera), Modena, Bergamo (Carrara), Naples, etc.

Many other academies, often in imitation of the Italian ones, arose through the initiative of other nations, such as the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris (1648), the Academy of France in Rome (1666), the Academy of St. Ferdinand in Madrid (1744), the Royal Academy of London (1766), the Academy of Spain in Rome (1873).

Notable is the contribution that the academies have made to the advancement of art through theoretical discussions, practical teaching, the moral protection of artists, the administration of bequests, the publication of "memoirs," the announcement of competitions, the custody of archives and collections. Certain deviations to which the name academic (v.) has been given cannot make us forget all these merits; and if it is true that today the tasks of the historical academies are much reduced, it would not be right to consider their function entirely exhausted. Several of them, with free evening schools, continue to instruct the young, although the official teaching of art has by now been assumed by the Government, which provides for it through the Artistic Lyceums, secondary institutes, and through nine higher institutes, operating in Carrara, Bologna, Florence, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Rome, Turin, Venice, to which the name Academy of Fine Arts has been given.

An attempt to restore importance to a great academic body was carried out in 1926 with the subsequently suppressed Academy of Italy (v. col. 180, n. 6), of which a class of the arts also formed part.

Particular mention is deserved here by the Pontifical Academy of the Virtuosi at the Pantheon which, having arisen in 1543 as a congregation of artists working in Rome, concerns itself in a special way with sacred art (v. n. III, 5).

Corrado Mezzana

2. ACADEMY OF ST. CECILIA, Rome

The beginnings of the institution can be connected with the provisions of the Council of Trent for sacred music (XXII session, 17 Sept. 1562). In 1566, the chapel masters of Rome gathered with the singers and performers into a sodality, which had as its head Pier Luigi da Palestrina, the great architect of that work of restoration. In 1584 Gregory XIII canonically erected it into a confraternity with the title of "Congregation of the musicians of Rome under the invocation of St. Cecilia," which Urban VIII with the bull Pietatis et christianae charitatis of 20 Nov. 1624 approved in perpetuity. Other pontiffs, among them principally Clement XI with the brief Ad pastoralis dignitatis officium (1716), Pius VI with the brief Supremi dispositione consilii (1794), Pius VIII with the brief Quoniam vero vocum concentus (1830), increased and progressively determined its prerogatives, which extended to the examination and engagement of masters and performers, to schools of music, to the licensing of the printing of music books. Although such jurisdiction was not always equally in force through the ages, the formation of the glorious Roman school of music is to a large extent due to the action of the sodality. In 1839 an academy united with the Congregation, and in the title it ended up prevailing, and obtained from Pius IX the qualification of Pontifical.

A complete reconstitution of the Academy took place in 1875 on the part of the Italian government, which officially assumed it, and in particular its teaching courses developed, with a musical Lyceum that later became a Conservatory, directed by the president of the Academy himself. The Academy now promotes, by various means, musical art, culture and education; and it founded the "National Union: Concerts" (1922) and the "International Federation of Concerts" (1929). Subsequent reforms of the statute were carried out in 1897, 1912 and 1934. The Academy presently consists of 100 effective academicians (Italians) and 50 honorary ones (foreigners). It possesses a rich collection of printed works and manuscripts, since 1911 called the "Government Musical Library of St. Cecilia." The feast of the patron saint (22 Nov.), for which the ancient Congregation founded a chapel in the church of St. Charles ai Catinari, is still celebrated officially with a solemn Mass.

Nello Vian

3. ACADEMY OF ST. LUKE, Rome

Its initial period is considered to be that of the Roman University or corporation of the arts, which existed at the end of the 15th century, governed by statutes preserved in a codex of 1478. The Academy entitled to St. Luke was erected by Gregory XIII with a brief dated 15 Oct. 1577, and obtained from a bull of Sixtus V of 1588 the confirmation of its privileges and its seat in the church of St. Martina at the Roman Forum. As a distinct body, from its very origins there arose alongside the Academy, which was made up of the major artists, the Company or Confraternity, welcoming the minor artists, with the sole exclusion of apprentices and laborers. A munificent protector of the Academy in its early days was Cardinal Federico Borromeo; its animator and legislator was the painter Federico Zuccari, named its "prince" in 1593. Subsequent statutes were given in 1607, 1714, 1788, 1817, 1907 and 1934 to the sodality, to which belonged all the most illustrious Italian artists and the greatest foreigners; and other academies that arose in various places according to its model affiliated themselves with it. Of the universal prestige enjoyed by Italian art, in the centuries of its enduring splendor, the Academy was the expression and the instrument. Its most notable activities were carried out in the education and protection of young artists, in the conservation and defense of the ancient artistic heritage, in the calling of competitions, of which the most solemn form was that founded by Clement XI. Throughout the entire period of the pontifical government, it also exercised teaching in the field of the arts.

The Academy is composed of three classes: painting, sculpture, architecture, each of which counts 12 effective academicians of merit and 24 corresponding ones. It further includes honorary academicians in a number not exceeding 90, chosen from among men of letters, writers on art, scientists, and protectors of the fine arts. Numerous still are the competitions of its 40 foundations. The Academy's patrimony is enriched by the Sarti Art Library, the Painting Gallery, and collections of drawings and documents. The academic seat remained until 1932 the building annexed to the church of St. Martin at the Roman Forum; once this was demolished, it moved to the Palazzo Carpegna in Via della Stamperia. - See Pl. XV.

Nello Vian