ACADEMY

society of learned persons organized to advance science, art, literature, music, or some other cultural or intellectual area of endeavour. The word academy is derived from the name of an olive grove outside ancient Athens where Plato taught philosophy. Gradually the term acquired the general meaning of a higher school, and in that sense it was used by the pharaoh Ptolemy I in Alexandria and by Spanish Muslim caliphs, the emperor Charlemagne, England's Alfred the Great, and others. At the close of the European Middle Ages, learned societies called academies began to be formed in Italy, first for the study of classical and then of Italian literature. One of the earliest was the Platonic Academy, founded in Florence in 1442 by two Greek scholars under the encouragement of Cosimo de' Medici. Literary academies sprang up all over Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries; the most famous of these was the Crusca Academy (Accademia della Crusca), which was founded in Florence by A.F. Grazzini in 1582. Its dictionary, Vocabolario della Crusca, first published in 1612, stabilized the Italian literary language on the basis of Tuscan speech. The first scientific academies began in the 16th century in Italy, the Lincei Academy (1603) in Rome being the most famous. In the 17th century Europe's two preeminent scientific academies were founded: the Royal Society (q.v.) of England in 1662 and the Academy of Sciences of France in 1666. The French Academy (q.v.; Acadmie Franaise), which would become Europe's best-known literary academy, began in 1635. France's third great academy, the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, was founded under similar state patronage in 1648 and is now called the Academy of Fine Arts (Acadmie des Beaux-Arts). These three French academies, together with two others, now make up the Institut de France. The Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Espaola) was founded in 1713 to preserve the Spanish language and published a landmark Spanish dictionary to that effect. By the start of the 18th century most European countries had scientific and literary academies, and these were followed by fine-arts academies. One of the most prominent was England's Royal Academy of Arts, founded in London in 1768 by Sir Joshua Reynolds. France's even better-known art academy has already been mentioned. Most fine-arts academies were closely connected with teaching functions and thus differed from earlier academies. (See art, academy of.) Academies of music, social sciences, medicine, mining, and agriculture also began to appear from the 18th century on. The foundation of academies continued throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and most European countries now have at least one academy or learned society that is sponsored by or otherwise connected with the state. The academies' influence was greatest during the 17th and 18th centuries but declined during the 19th because of their tendency to resist new and unorthodox developments in science and culture. The United States, like Great Britain, Canada, and other English-speaking countries, has no state-established academies of science or literature, a fact reflective of English beliefs that culture should basically be a matter for private initiative. The first learned society in what would become the United States was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743 and called the American Philosophical Society. The rival American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1779, and the National Academy of Sciences was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1863. Russia's Imperial Academy of Sciences was founded by Peter the Great in St. Petersburg in 1724 and later came to serve as the Soviet Union's principal coordinating body for scientific research. (See Sciences, Academy of.) The term academy is also often used to designate a secondary school or college in which special subjects are taught-e.g., military or naval affairs, agriculture, fine arts, music, or business.