Academy

Academy (Gr. akadēmeia or akadēmía) was the name of a public park nearly a mile to the NW. of Athens, equipped as a gymnasium by Hipparchus, and bequeathed to the citizens as a pleasure-ground by Cimon, son of Miltiades, who had adorned it with avenues of trees, statues, and altars. In its shady walks (the 'groves of Academe') Plato was wont to converse with his disciples and friends; and so the name of the meeting-place, said to have been originally derived from the hero Academus, came to be used as a distinctive title of Plato's school and of the Platonic philosophy. The various phases of development or perversion which Plato's principles underwent at the hands of a long train of successors are spoken of as the Old Academy; the Second or Middle Academy, led by the disputations Arcesilaus (q.v.); and the New Academy, of which the sceptical Carneades (q.v.) was the head. Occasionally the professedly Platonic system, as taught by Philo and Antiochus respectively, is referred to as the Fourth and Fifth Academies. Cicero's Questiones Academice had their name from one of his villas known as Academia. At the revival of classical studies in the 15th century, the name academy came to be given in Italy either to associations of learned men or to educational institutes, and a like divergence still marks the use of the term. In Germany it is generally used of learned societies, is occasionally applied to the universities, and is the recognised denomination of many technical institutes, such as military and naval academies, schools of mining, agriculture, and forestry. In England and America, academies may be grammar-schools, military and naval educational schools, or associations for the promotion of music and the fine arts. Sometimes 'academy for young gentlemen' is simply an elementary boarding-school. In France, by academy is sometimes meant not only a learned society, but the whole educational staff of a large territorial area, or division of the University of France. The Académie of Geneva is its university. The Grand Opera in Paris is officially, but strangely, termed Académie Impériale de Musique, an example followed by several of the comic theatres. In America (as at

New York, &c.) the name Academy of Music is often used of opera-houses.

In its most universal modern acceptance, the word academy denotes a society of learned men, incorporated for the promotion of science, literature, or art; and this usage is well understood even where, as in England, such learned bodies are generally termed societies. The first institution in ancient times that seems to merit the name, in this sense, of academy, was the celebrated Museum founded at Alexandria in the 3d century B.C. by Ptolemy Soter, which concentrated in that intellectual capital all that was most eminent in science, philosophy, poetry, and criticism. After this model, the Jews, and at a later period, the Arabians, founded numerous institutions for the promotion of learning. In the middle ages, with the exception of the Moorish institutions at Granada and Cordova, in which poetry and music formed prominent subjects of study, we find nothing corresponding to the modern idea of an academy, save the learned society established by Charlemagne in his own palace, at the suggestion of his teacher Alcuin. In the following centuries there are no traces of any like associations; during the middle ages such learning and science as survived had taken refuge within the monasteries. The academy of the fine arts founded at Florence by Brunetto Latini in 1270; that by Frederick II. at Palermo in 1300; and the Académie des Jeux floraux at Toulouse, in 1323, existed solely for the culture of poetry. Not till the revival of classical studies in the 15th century did those associations of learned men arise which soon accomplished so much for promoting a freer development of human thought, in opposition to the narrowness of ecclesiastical tradition and monastic practice. The Academia Platonica of Florence, established by Lorenzo de' Medici in 1474, devoted itself not only to the investigation of the Platonic philosophy, but to the purification of the Italian tongue, and the study of Dante; thus becoming the model of many like institutions in all the more important Italian cities, though it was itself dissolved in 1521. The Accademia della Crusca, or Accademia Furfuratorium, was founded at Florence in 1582; its principal service was the compilation of an excellent dictionary, and the publication of correct editions of the older Italian poets. The Neapolitan Accademia Secretorum Naturæ, founded in 1560 for the prosecution of the physical sciences, was the first of its kind, but was speedily suppressed by the church. Among the many associations upon its model were the short-lived Accademia de' Linei in Rome (1609), and the Accademia del Cimento at Florence (1657). All these and their numerous sister academies in Italy were independent associations, occasionally patronised by princes, but consisting of private persons, and not recognised or formally sanctioned by the state.

A new development was given to such bodies when, in 1635, Richelieu transformed a private association of poets of no great note into a national institution, the Académie Française, which met for the first time, 10th July 1637. The chief object of this institution was to render the French language pure, eloquent, and capable of treating the arts and sciences; and it pledged itself to compose a dictionary, a treatise on rhetoric, and a treatise on poetry. The great dictionary, much criticised then and since, was published in 1694, and reached its 7th edition in 1878. The influence of the academy on the French language and literature has naturally been in the main conservative, and directed on 'taste' rather than on originality. It boasts on its roll of members most of the eminent French writers, though it rejected La Bruyère, Boileau, and Molière (as a player). Louis XIV. founded the Académie des Inscriptions in 1663, for the immediate object of examining his collection of medals and other antiquities. The third academy in order, the Académie Royale des Sciences, was founded by Colbert in 1666. The painter Le Brun founded in 1648 an Académie de Peinture, for which he obtained a charter in 1655; and in 1664, Colbert remodelled and established it as the Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture, with which was afterwards incorporated the Académie Royale d'Architecture, founded 1671. All these academies were suppressed by an edict of the Convention (1793); but in 1795, the Directory established a great national association, for the promotion of the arts and sciences, called the Institut National. It was at first divided into three classes, and re-arranged in four in 1803. In 1816, Louis XVIII. restored the names of the old academies to the four classes of the Institute—(1) L'Académie Française; (2) L'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres; (3) L'Académie des Sciences; (4) L'Académie des Beaux-arts, the general title, 'Institute of France,' becoming successively modified by the epithet 'Royal,' 'Imperial,' or 'National,' in harmony with the political changes in France. An ordinance of 1832 re-established the old second class as a fifth academy, L'Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, and this organisation still subsists. Each academy has its own jurisdiction and work, an agency and secretaries; the library and the valuable collections of the Institute are common to the five; the common fund is managed by a committee of ten members (two from each academy), under the presidency of the Minister of Public Instruction. Members are elected by ballot, the election requiring to be confirmed by government, and members of one academy may be elected as members of any or all of the other four. Each member has an annual salary of 1500 francs, and each secretary of an academy 6000. If the members of the Académie Française attend all the meetings, their salary is raised to 5000 francs each, and five charged with the compilation of the dictionary get besides 1500 francs. Those engaged on a history of French literature get 2400 francs each. The Académie Française meets one hour, the other four academies two hours a week; each has also one public annual sitting; and on the 25th October there is a general public meeting of the whole five. All the academies, with the exception of the first, have a certain number of académiciens libres, associés étrangers, and correspondants; the 'académiciens libres' have only the right of attending the meetings of the academy; the 'associés étrangers' are foreign members.

The following table gives the full complement of members and correspondents for each academy:

The Académie Française has the disposal of a prize of 2000 francs each year for eloquence and poetry alternately, and of foundation prizes (1) to 'a poor Frenchman who has done the most virtuous action throughout the year,' and (2) to 'a Frenchman who has written and published the book most conducive to good morals' in the course of the year. Each year a sum is voted by the French government for the general fund of the Institute, and from this fund are paid the allowances of members, salaries of the secretaries and other officials, and several prizes; also experiments, printing, and other expenses. See Mesnard's Histoire de L'Académie Française (1859).

Academies after the Parisian model were soon established in most of the other European capitals. Of these several have attained the rank of national central institutions; as those of Madrid, Lisbon, Stockholm, and St Petersburg. Centralisation of this kind has never been possible in Italy, Germany, or England. Whether working with the sanction and support of the state or as independent associations, academies, when not directly modelled after the French Institute, generally fall into two or three main classes or departments; of which one at least interests itself in mathematics and the natural sciences; another is devoted to philosophy, philology, and history. The members, who in many cases receive a salary, are usually classified as ordinary, honorary, and corresponding. They may choose each for himself a special subject of research, or, as in St Petersburg, have one assigned to them by the government. The results of their labours in their various departments are reported at the regular periodic sittings, and thereafter published by the academy. These papers are in England generally termed Transactions (Lat. acta, or commentarii; Ital. atti; Fr. mémoires); shorter papers, reports of the sittings, notices to members, correspondence, and the like, appear in the form of a journal, and are commonly known as the Proceedings (Fr. bulletins, comptes rendus). Prizes are customarily established by the academy for work upon new or difficult subjects.

In France, besides the Institut, there are numerous learned societies in the provinces which generally bear the name of Académie.—Spain possesses the Real Academia Española, founded at Madrid in 1713, for the improvement of the Castilian language; an academy of history (1738); and another (1847) for the furtherance of mathematics and natural science.—The Portuguese Academy was founded in 1779.—In Italy, besides the already-mentioned Crusca, and the Del Cimento at Florence, valuable services have been rendered by the Academy of Sciences at Turin, a private association from 1757 till 1783, when it became a royal institute; the academies at Milan (1838), at Venice (1838), at Padua (1779), at Brescia (1801), and Bologna (1712); the Società Italiana delle Scienze at Modena; at Rome the Accademia degli Arcadi (1656), the Accademia de' Nuovi Lincei (1847); the agricultural Accademia dei Georgofili (1752) at Florence; and the Neapolitan Nuova Società Reale.

The Akademie der Wissenschaften of Berlin was founded in 1700 by Frederick I. The first president was Leibnitz, whose extraordinary versatility of genius qualified him for a leading place in all its departments. Under the great Frederick, new life was infused into the academy by the encouragement offered to learned men of all countries to settle at Berlin. Maupertuis was now appointed president, and the academy was reorganised under the four classes of Physics, Mathematics, Philosophy, History and Philology. The famous Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften at Göttingen has been in existence since 1752. The academy at Munich dates from 1759; that at Leipzig from 1768.—The most notable Austrian academies are the Kaiserliche Akademie at Vienna, instituted in 1847; societies at Prague and Cracow; and the Hungarian academy at Pesth.—In Belgium, the Académie Royale (1773, 1808) holds the first rank.—The Netherlands have an Akademie van Wetenschappen (1808); besides learned societies at Middelburg, Utrecht, Haarlem, and Rotterdam.—The national academy of Denmark has published valuable transactions since 1742.—Norway has had an academy at Trondheim since 1760, and another in Christiania since 1837. Sweden possesses two academies at Stockholm for the promotion of science and literature, founded respectively in 1739 and 1786; besides the well-known Regia Societas Scientiarum of Upsala.—The Imperial Academy of St Petersburg was planned in 1724 by Peter the Great, but founded by Catharine I. in 1728. Finland has a Societas Scientiarum, meeting at Helsingfors.—There is a Servian academy at Belgrade, and a Roumanian one at Bucharest. Constantinople instituted one in 1851, and there is one at Alexandria.

In Great Britain, learned associations are most frequently known as Societies (q.v.). The Royal Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the British Association, and the Social Science Congress, are treated in separate articles. Except in the case of the Royal Irish Academy of Sciences in Dublin (founded 1782), the name academy is in England generally given to institutions existing expressly for the cultivation of the fine arts. The Royal Academy of Arts in London was founded in 1768, for the promotion of the arts of design, painting, sculpture, &c. (see ROYAL ACADEMY). The Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture was founded at Edinburgh in 1826, and received a royal charter in 1838. Similar to these also is the Royal Hibernian Academy, incorporated at Dublin in 1803. The Royal Academy of Music in London, founded 1823, is an educational institute.

In America, as in Britain, learned societies are not usually termed academies, though many are. The Smithsonian Institution at Washington (q.v.), and the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia, founded in 1780, are prominent amongst transatlantic learned associations.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was established at Boston in 1780; it had previously existed in another form, the original institution being due to Franklin. The first volume of its Transactions was published in 1785. The Academy of Natural Sciences was founded at Philadelphia in 1812, and commenced its Journal in 1817. The library of this academy is the fiuest of its kind in America. The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences was organised at Newhaven in 1799. The New York Academy of Sciences, incorporated in 1818 as the 'Lyceum of Natural History,' possesses a large valuable library, including Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History, from 1824; Proceedings commencing in 1873, and Transactions beginning with 1881. The National Academy was incorporated by the congress of the United States in 1863, its object being to examine and report upon scientific questions. The Peabody Academy of Sciences, at Salem, Massachusetts, was endowed by George Peabody. The Academy of Science of St Louis, Missouri, was incorporated in 1857. The Chicago Academy of Science (1865), publishes occasional Transactions. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, at Philadelphia (1805), affords excellent facilities for instruction in the various branches of art. The National Academy of Design, in New York, claims to be the foremost school of art in the United States; and the art schools at St Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, &c. are virtually academies of the fine arts.—Canada has its Royal Society (1882); whilst at Rio Jaueiro and other South American capitals there are more or less prosperous academies of literature, science, and art.

The academies of the fine arts alone that exist in

European capitals and important cities, especially in Italy, are too numerous to particularise.