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{{Short description|Italian literary academy founded in Rome in 1690}}
{{Italian language|state=expanded}}
The '''Accademia degli Arcadi''' or '''Accademia dell'Arcadia''', "Academy of Arcadia" or "Academy of the Arcadians", is an Italian literary [[academy]] founded in [[Rome]] in 1690. The full Italian official name was '''Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi'''.
==History==
=== Foundation ===
{{More citations needed|section|date=October 2021}}
The beginnings of the Accademia degli Arcadi date to February 1656, when a literary circle formed under the patronage of [[Christina of Sweden|Queen Christina of Sweden]], who had abdicated the Swedish crown in 1654, converted to Catholicism, and taken up her residence in Rome, where she spent much of the rest of her life. There she became a significant patron of music and opera, with composers including [[Alessandro Scarlatti]], [[Alessandro Stradella]] and [[Arcangelo Corelli]] dedicating works to her. After her death in 1689, the academy was established in her memory and elected her as its symbolic head (''basilissa'', the Greek term for 'Queen'). For the next two hundred years, the Academy remained a leading cultural institution.
[[File:Arcadi.jpg|thumb|240px|Stamp of the Academy of Arcadia]]
The first solemn gathering of the Arcadians was held on the [[Janiculum]] hill, in a wood belonging to the [[Order of Friars Minor Conventual|Reformed Minorites]], on 5 October 1690. The Accademia degli Arcadi was so-called because its principal intention was to reform the diction of Italian poetry, which the founders believed had become corrupt through over-indulgence in the ornamentation of the baroque style. Under the inspiration of pastoral literature, the conventions of which imagined the life of shepherds, originally supposed to have lived in Arcadia in the golden age, divinely inspired in poetry by the [[Muse]]s, [[Apollo]], [[Hermes]] and [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]], the Academy chose as its emblem the pipe of [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]] with its seven unequal reeds.
The fourteen founders selected [[Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni]] as the first ''Custode di Arcadia'' or president of the academy. He was the author of a history of Italian poetry and of various literary works.<ref>{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Crescimbeni, Giovanni Mario|volume=7|pages=411-412}}</ref> The Arcadians resolved to return to the fields of truth, always singing of subjects of pastoral simplicity and drawing their inspiration from Greco-Roman bucolic poetry. The ideal parameters for the artistic work were simplicity and a sense of measure and beauty. Common to all the poets was the desire to oppose the poetry of the [[Marinism|Marinists]],<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Academy-of-Arcadia Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Academy of Arcadia". ''Encyclopedia Britannica'']</ref> and return to classic poetry, embracing also the recent rationalist influence of [[Descartes]]. Norms and rituals of the academy took their cue from classic and pastoral mythology, as in the custom of assuming 'pastoral' names ([[Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni|Crescimbeni]], for example, chose that of 'Alfesibeo Cario'). The fourteen founder members included the librettist [[Silvio Stampiglia]] and the poet [[Vincenzo Leonio]].<ref>''Estirpare il cattivo gusto e le bizzarrie che si erano introdotti nella lingua poetica''</ref>
=== Orsini Gardens & Beyond ===
In 1692, the meetings were transferred to the gardens of [[Orsini family|Duke Orsini]] on the [[Esquiline]] hill; in 1696, to the [[Farnese Gardens]] on the [[Palatine Hill|Palatine]]. Finally, the generosity of [[John V of Portugal]], one of its members under the name of Arete Melleo, enabled the society to secure (1723) on the Janiculum a site known as the ''Bosco Parrasio'' or (Parrasian Grove). Here they held their meetings on summer days, in winter moving to the ''Teatro degli Arcadi'' in the [[Palazzo Salviati (Rome)|Palazzo Salviati]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZlfQAAAAMAAJ&dq=Pontifical+Academy+of+Arcadia&pg=PA559 Tuker, Mildred Anna Rosalie and Malleson, Hope. ''Handbook to Christian and Ecclesiastical Rome'', Parts 3-4, A. and C. Black, 1900, p. 559]</ref> In 1696 the Accademia admitted seven musicians including [[Giovanni Bononcini]].<ref name=GroveOnline>{{cite Grove|last=Bennett|first1=Lawrence E.|last2=Lindgren|first2=Lowell|title=Bononcini family [Buononcini|id=40140|year=2001}}{{subscription required}}</ref>
While the academy was still on the Palatine, its ''Statuto'' or Constitution was drawn up. This constitution (the work of co-founder [[Gian Vincenzo Gravina]]) was modelled on the ancient Roman laws of the '[[Twelve Tables]]', and was engraved on marble. Differing tendencies soon asserted themselves, following the ideas of the two founders: that of Gravina stood in the tradition of [[Homer]] and Dante, while that of Crescimbeni was more influenced by [[Petrarch]]. Because of these differences, Gravina left to found the [[Accademia dei Quirini]] in 1711. Despite this loss, Arcadia retained its vigour in the following years and created colonies in many cities of Italy. Many noblemen, ecclesiastics, and artists held membership in it to be an honour, and very soon it numbered 1,300. Much of what they produced, however, was either mediocre or pretentious (an example is [[Saverio Bettinelli]]'s disparagement of [[Dante]]), although the Academy did receive some endorsement for its attack on the redundant [[Rococo]] style, then dominant in art and literature.
The celebrated opera librettist [[Pietro Metastasio]] (1698–1782), although he had his own differences with Arcadia, was a student of Gravina's and a leading light of the academy's second generation. His works, of which the best remembered might be ''Il Re Pastore'' because of its setting by Mozart, may represent the closest thing to a justification of the program that Arcadia achieved.
In 1795, the academy admitted the Italian [[Diodata Saluzzo Roero]], as one of its first female members,<ref name="Letzia">Letizia Panizza & Sharon Wood (2000). "A History of Women's Writing in Italy". p. 144.</ref> but some evidence does exist for earlier female members. In the 17th century, the poet [[Maria Antonia Scalera Stellini]] was elected a member, and the 1721 edition of the Academy's publication included work by [[Caterina Imperiale Lercari Pallavicini]]. [[Margherita Sparapani Gentili Boccapadule]] was also a member.<ref>Di Jean-Pierre Lobies, François-Pierre Lobies, Index bio-bibliographicus notorum hominum, Biblio Verlag, 1973, p. 493. ISBN 3-7648-0726-1, 9783764807269. E anche in Fernando Mazzocca, Enrico Colle, Stefano Susino, Il Neoclassicismo in Italia da Tiepolo a Canova, Milano, SKIRA, 2002, p. 477.</ref>
=== Anti-Arcadian Reaction ===
A violent anti-Arcadian reaction soon developed, and, starting from the early 19th century, Arcadianism began to be regarded as a late and unconvincing expression of the ''ancien régime''. After the end of the [[French Revolution]], the Academy strove to renew itself in accord with the spirit of the times, without sacrificing its traditional system of sylvan associations and pastoral names. The Academy no longer represented a literary school, but a general interest in the classics and figures like Dante came to be greatly honoured by its members. Furthermore, the Academy's field of endeavour was enlarged to include many branches of study, including history and archaeology. The new Arcadian revival was marked by the foundation (1819) of the ''[[Giornale Arcadico]]''. In 1925 the Academy was renamed to become the ''Arcadia – Accademia Letteraria Italiana'', a historical institute.
=== Legacy ===
The Accademia degli Arcadi counted among its members some of the principal literary men and women of the time, including [[Carlo d'Aquino]], [[Carlo Alessandro Guidi]], [[Petronilla Paolini Massimi]], [[Benedetto Menzini]], librettist [[Pietro Metastasio]], [[Francesco Redi]] [[Paolo Rolli]], and linguist [[Clotilde Tambroni]], among others. The famous composer [[George Frideric Handel]] is known to have often attended the meetings and symposia of the Arcadians when studying in Italy, under the patronage of Ruspoli, a leading member of the Academy. There is an interesting account of the Academy's history and program in Goethe's '[[Italian Journey]]'.
The archives of the academy are currently housed in the [[Angelica Library|Biblioteca Angelica]], next to the church of [[Basilica of Sant'Agostino|Sant'Agostino]] in [[Rome]]. The paintings are housed in the [[Palazzo Braschi]].
''Atti e memorie dell'Accademia letteraria italiana'' was published by the academy.<ref>[https://copac.jisc.ac.uk/search?title=Atti%20e%20memorie%20dell'Accademia%20letteraria%20italiana. Copac record]; accessed 19 July 2019</ref>
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==References==
* Barroero, L. and Susinno, S. 'Arcadian Rome, Universal Capital of the Arts', in ''Art in Rome in the Eighteenth Century'', ed. E. P. Bowron and J. J. Rishel, 47–77 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2000)
* Dixon, S. M. (1999) "Women in Arcadia", ''Eighteenth Century Studies'', 32(3), pp.&nbsp;371–375.
* Dixon, S. M. (2006) ''Between the real and the ideal: the Accademia degli Arcadi and its garden in eighteenth-century Rome'' (Newark, Del.: University of Delaware Press).
* Forment, B. (2008) Moonlight on Endymion: In Search of “Arcadian Opera,” 1688-1721, ''Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music'', 14(1). Online: https://sscm-jscm.org/v14/no1/forment.html
* Giorgetti Vichi, A. M. (ed.) (1977) ''Gli Arcadi dal 1690 al 1800: Onomasticon'' (Rome, Arcadia – Accademia Letteraria Italiana). (List of members.)
* Claudio Rendina, ''Enciclopedia di Roma'', Rome: Newton Compton, 2000.
==External links==
*[http://www.accademiadellarcadia.it Official website]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060928055136/http://www.scholarly-societies.org/history/1690ada.html Notes on the Accademia dell'Arcadia from the Scholarly Societies project]
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[[Category:Education in Rome]]
[[Category:Italian literature]]
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[[Category:Italian writers' organisations]]
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