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{{Short description|Italian Fascist academy (1929–1944)}}
[[File:L'Illustration 9 novembre 1929.jpg|thumb|1929 inauguration of the Academy]]
The '''Royal Academy of Italy''' ({{langx|it|'''Reale Accademia d'Italia'''|italic=no}}) was a short-lived Italian [[academy]] of the [[Italian Fascism|Fascist period]]. It was created on 7 January 1926 by [[royal decree]],<ref name="p474">See reference {{Harvnb|Cannistraro|1982|p=474}}.</ref> but was not inaugurated until 28 October 1929.{{r|lincei}} It was effectively dissolved in 1943 with the [[fall of Mussolini]], and was finally suppressed on 28 September 1944.{{r|lincei2}} All of its functions and assets, including the [[Villa Farnesina]], were passed to the [[Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei]].{{r|lincei2}} Until 25 April 1945 it continued some activity in the [[Villa Carlotta]] on [[Lake Como]] near [[Tremezzo]] in [[Lombardy]].{{r|trecc}}

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 <nowiki>[abroad]</nowiki>".<ref>See {{Harvnb|Cannistraro|1982|p=474}}: an excerpt of the discourse of [[Benito Mussolini]] during the [[debate]] in the [[Italian Parliament]] following the decree of foundation of the academy is reported by {{Harvtxt|Cagiano De Azevedo|Gerardi|2005|p=XI}}, and reads exactly as follows: ''<nowiki>[l’Istituto]</nowiki> (...) dovrà perciò avere un suo compito affatto diverso da quello delle altre Accademie esistenti nel Regno (...) <nowiki>[alle]</nowiki> quali sono affidati generalmente compiti particolari o locali, l’Accademia d’Italia dovrà essere un centro vivo della cultura nazionale, che alimenti e promuova il movimento intellettuale, secondo il genio e la tradizione della nostra gente, e ne diffonda l’efficacia oltre i confini della Patria (...) L’Accademia potrà inoltre dare saggio ed utile ausilio al Governo nello studio e nella risoluzione dei più gravi problemi relativi alla cultura nazionale''.</ref>

==Structure and history==
[[File:MarcelloPiacentini1900.jpg|thumbnail|200px|Architect [[Marcello Piacentini]] portrayed with the uniform of a member of the Royal Academy of Italy.]]

The Academy was modelled upon the prestigious [[Académie française|French Academy]].<ref name="p474"/> The Academy selected sixty Italians chosen for their scientific, literary, and artistic achievements.<ref>See reference {{Harvnb|Cannistraro|1982|pp=474–475}}.</ref>  Those sixty members were divided into four groups of fifteen, representing the physical sciences, moral sciences (including history), arts, and letters (literature).<ref name="p475">See reference {{Harvnb|Cannistraro|1982|p=475}}.</ref>

Politically the Academy served to unify and 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.<ref name="p475"/> 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.<ref name="p475"/>  It absorbed other independent institutions, notably the prestigious and venerable scientific [[Accademia dei Lincei]] in 1939.

The members were well paid, earning 3,000 [[Italian lira|lire]] per month at a time when average per capita income in Italy was 3,079 per year.<ref name="p475"/> The members were automatically granted [[first class travel]] on Italy's national railways and were entitled to wear uniforms designed for the members and to be addressed as "''Your Excellency''".<ref>See reference {{Harvnb|Cannistraro|1982|p=475}}: the exact [[Italian language|Italian]] [[phrase]] is "''Sua Eccellenza''".</ref> 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.<ref name="p475"/> The Academy sponsored lectures, meetings, research, and publications.<ref name="p475"/> 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.<ref name="p475"/>

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.<ref name="p475"/>

== Membership ==

The six presidents of the Academy were:{{r|trecc}}  
* [[Tommaso Tittoni]], politician, 1929–1930
* [[Guglielmo Marconi]], inventor of [[radio telegraphy]], 1930–1937
* [[Gabriele D'Annunzio]], poet and politician, 1937–1938
* [[Luigi Federzoni]], politician, 1938–1943
* [[Giovanni Gentile]], philosopher, 1943–1944
* {{ill|Giotto Dainelli Dolfi|it}}, geologist and geographer, from 1944.

There were sixty members in all.{{r|trecc}} An initial list of thirty names was compiled by Tittoni and [[Francesco Giunta]], and was approved by the [[Council of Ministers (Italy)|council of ministers]] on 13 March 1929.{{r|lincei}} They were:{{citation needed|date=February 2018}} {{ill|Antonio Beltramelli|it}}, {{ill|Pietro Bonfante|it}}, [[Filippo Bottazzi]], [[Armando Brasini]], [[Pietro Canonica]], [[Francesco Coppola]], Giotto Dainelli Dolfi, [[Salvatore Di Giacomo]], [[Enrico Fermi]], [[Carlo Formichi]], [[Umberto Giordano]], {{ill|Alessandro Luzio|it}}, [[Antonio Mancini]], [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]], [[Pietro Mascagni]], {{ill|Francesco Orestano|it}}, [[Alfredo Panzini]], {{ill|Nicola Parravano|it}}, [[Marcello Piacentini]], [[Luigi Pirandello]], [[Pietro Romualdo Pirotta]], {{ill|Ettore Romagnoli|it}}, [[Romano Romanelli]], [[Giulio Aristide Sartorio]], [[Francesco Severi]], [[Bonaldo Stringher]], [[Alfredo Trombetti]], {{ill|Giancarlo Vallauri|it}}, [[Gioacchino Volpe]] and [[Adolfo Wildt]].

==Notes==
{{Reflist|45em|refs=

<ref name=lincei>[http://www.lincei-celebrazioni.it/i1929i.html 1929 Inaugurazione Accademia d'Italia] (in Italian). Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Accessed February 2018.</ref>

<ref name=lincei2>[http://www.lincei-celebrazioni.it/i1944i.html 1944 Soppressione della Reale Accademia d'Italia] (in Italian). Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Accessed February 2018.</ref>

<ref name=trecc>[http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/accademia-d-italia/ Accademia d’Italia] (in Italian). Enciclopedie on line. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed February 2018.</ref>

}}

==References==
*{{Citation
  | last = Cannistraro
  | first = Philip V.
  | author-link = 
  | title = Historical Dictionary of Fascist Italy
  | place = [[Westport, Connecticut]]- London
  | publisher = [[Greenwood Press]]
  | year = 1982
  | volume = 
  | edition = 
  | pages = [https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio00tion/page/657 657]
  | url = https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio00tion/page/657
  | doi = 
  | id = 
  | isbn = 0-313-21317-8
  | url-access = registration
  }}.
*{{Citation
 |editor-last   = Cagiano De Azevedo
 |editor-first  = Paola
 |editor2-last  = Gerardi
 |editor2-first = Elvira
 |title         = Reale Accademia d'Italia. Inventario dell'archivio (Inventory of the Archive)
 |place         = Roma
 |publisher     = [[Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali]] - Dipartimento per i Beni Archivistici e Librari - Direzione Generale per gli Archivi
 |year          = 2005
 |series        = Pubblicazioni degli Archivi di Stato - Strumenti
 |volume        = CLXVII
 |pages         = lxxxiv+492
 |url           = http://www.archivi.beniculturali.it/DGA-free/Strumenti/Strumenti_CLXVII.pdf
 |isbn          = 88-7125-264-0
 |url-status       = dead
 |archiveurl    = https://web.archive.org/web/20120907065146/http://www.archivi.beniculturali.it/DGA-free/Strumenti/Strumenti_CLXVII.pdf
 |archivedate   = 2012-09-07
}} (in [[Italian language|Italian]]), freely available from the [http://www.archivi.beniculturali.it/ Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali - Dipartimento per i Beni Archivistici e Librari - Direzione Generale per gli Archivi] (a branch of the [[Italia]]n [[Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali]]). The complete inventory of the [[Reale Accademia d'Italia]], which incorporated the [[Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei]] between 1939 and 1944.
* This article contains material translated from its equivalent in Italian Wikipedia, accessed 5/20/2011

{{Learned societies in Italy}}
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{{Coord missing|Italy}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Academy Of Italy}}
[[Category:National academies of sciences|Italy]]
[[Category:National academies of arts and humanities|Italy]]
[[Category:Italian fascism]]
[[Category:National academies|Italy]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Academy of Italy| ]]
[[Category:1926 establishments in Italy]]
[[Category:1943 disestablishments in Italy]]
[[Category:Scientific organizations established in 1926]]
[[Category:Organizations disestablished in 1943]]
[[Category:Learned societies of Italy]]