Royal Academy of Italy
The Royal Academy of Italy (Italian: Reale Academia d'Italia) was an organization of Italian academians, intellectuals, and cultural figures created on 7 January 1926 by the Fascist government of the Kingdom of Italy by a royal decree.[1] The declared purpose of the academy was "to promote and coordinate Italian intellectual activity in the sciences, the humanities, and the arts, to preserve the integrity of the national spirit, according to the genius and tradition of the race, and to encourage their diffusion [abroad]".[2]
Structure and history
The Academy was modelled upon the prestigious French Academy.[3] The Academy selected sixty Italians chosen for their scientific, literary, and artistic achievements.[4] Of the sixty members they were divided into four groups with fifteen members each which were: physical sciences, moral sciences (including history), arts, and letters (literature).[5] The members were well paid, earning 3,000 lire per month at a time when average per capita income in Italy was 3,079 per year.[6] The members were automatically granted first-class travel on Italy's national railroads and were entitled to were uniforms designed for the members and to be addressed as "Your Excellency".[7] Each were allowed to compete for the four annual Mussolini prizes which were awarded to Academy members who demonstrated outstanding work in their respective fields.[8] The Academy sponsored lectures, meetings, research, and publications.[9] In 1934, the Academy appointed a commission to create a dictionary of the Italian language in which all Italianized foreign words were to be removed.[10]
The Academy also served to strengthen the Fascist regime's hold on intellectual activity in Italy, as the Academy demanded that all its members swear loyalty to Fascism and Italy.[11] The Academy was effective at drawing in the intellectual and cultural elites and was mostly effective at rewarding real talent rather than just loyalty to the regime.[12] After the collapse of the Fascist regime in 1943 and the installation of the puppet Fascist regime in the Italian Social Republic, a new version of the Academy was briefly reopened until the remnant Fascist state was defeated in 1945.[13] The heir to the Royal Academy of Italy is the Angelica-Constantiniana Academy of Arts and Sciences, established in 1949.
Notable members
- Gabriele d'Annunzio, Poet and politician. President of the Royal Academny, 1937-1938
- Luigi Federzoni, Politician. President of the Royal Academny, 1938-1943.
- Guglielmo Marconi, inventor of radio telegraphy. President of the Royal Academy in 1930-1937.
Notes
- ^ Cannistraro, Philip V. (1982) Historical Dictionary of Fascist Italy, Westport, Conn.; London : Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-21317-8. Pp. 474.
- ^ Cannistraro, pp. 474.
- ^ Cannistraro, pp. 474.
- ^ Cannistraro, pp. 474-475.
- ^ Cannistraro, pp. 475.
- ^ Cannistraro, pp. 475.
- ^ Cannistraro, pp. 475.
- ^ Cannistraro, pp. 475.
- ^ Cannistraro, pp. 475
- ^ Cannistraro, pp. 475.
- ^ Cannistraro, pp. 475.
- ^ Cannistraro, pp. 475.
- ^ Cannistraro, pp. 475.