Royal Academy of Italy

Structure and history

The Academy was modelled upon the prestigious French Academy. The Academy selected sixty Italians chosen for their scientific, literary, and artistic achievements. Those sixty members were divided into four groups of fifteen, representing the physical sciences, moral sciences (including history), arts, and letters (literature).

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. 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. It absorbed other independent institutions, notably the prestigious and venerable scientific Accademia dei Lincei in 1939.

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. 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". 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. The Academy sponsored lectures, meetings, research, and publications. 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.

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.

Membership

The six presidents of the Academy were:

• 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
• Giotto Dainelli Dolfi, geologist and geographer, from 1944.

There were sixty members in all. An initial list of thirty names was compiled by Tittoni and Francesco Giunta, and was approved by the council of ministers on 13 March 1929. They were: , , Filippo Bottazzi, Armando Brasini, Pietro Canonica, Francesco Coppola, Giotto Dainelli Dolfi, Salvatore Di Giacomo, Enrico Fermi, Carlo Formichi, Umberto Giordano, , Antonio Mancini, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Pietro Mascagni, , Alfredo Panzini, , Marcello Piacentini, Luigi Pirandello, Pietro Romualdo Pirotta, , Romano Romanelli, Giulio Aristide Sartorio, Francesco Severi, Bonaldo Stringher, Alfredo Trombetti, Giancarlo Vallauri, Gioacchino Volpe and Adolfo Wildt.

Notes

References

• {{Citation | author-link = | url-access = registration
• {{Citation |editor-last = Cagiano De Azevedo |editor-first = Paola |editor2-last = Gerardi |editor2-first = Elvira |url-status = dead
• This article contains material translated from its equivalent in Italian Wikipedia, accessed 5/20/2011

References

1. See reference {{Harvnb. Cannistraro. 1982
2. See {{Harvnb. Cannistraro. 1982. Cagiano De Azevedo. Gerardi. 2005
3. See reference {{Harvnb. Cannistraro. 1982
4. See reference {{Harvnb. Cannistraro. 1982
5. See reference {{Harvnb. Cannistraro. 1982. Italian]] [[phrase]] is "''Sua Eccellenza''".
6. [http://www.lincei-celebrazioni.it/i1929i.html 1929 Inaugurazione Accademia d'Italia] (in Italian). Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Accessed February 2018.
7. [http://www.lincei-celebrazioni.it/i1944i.html 1944 Soppressione della Reale Accademia d'Italia] (in Italian). Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Accessed February 2018.
8. [http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/accademia-d-italia/ Accademia d’Italia] (in Italian). Enciclopedie on line. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed February 2018.