Accademia degli Arcadi
The Academy of the Arcadia, the Accademia degli Arcadi also Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi or (German society of the Arcadians ), was founded on October 5, 1690 in Rome by the poet circle of the deceased in the year Queen Christina of Sweden.
The academy's name refers to the bucolic poetry in prose and verse Arcadia ( 1501) of the Italian poet Jacopo Sannazaro as well as on the same, rural Greek region of Arcadia in the center of the Peloponnese, which was the scene of the Greco-Roman bucolic poetry. Norms and customs of the Academy were influenced by classical mythology and rural, including, for example, the habit of academics to use pseudonyms.
The Academy quickly took a certain national character, and to become part of it came to her philosophers, writers and scientists in the Galilean school with.
Allen poets of the desire was there together, to confront the artificiality of poetry Marinos and propagate rather the return to classicism and especially to rationalism, which was derived from the Cartesian philosophy (already at that time was Descartes as pioneer of modernism ).
The ideals to be followed and guidelines for artistic works were simplicity, sense of measure and the beauty and elegance, but could also degenerate into a mannered gallantry.
Such ideas stirred forth from confrontation with contemporary French classicism, which was then the cultural panorama of Europe dominated and himself regarded as "rational". As a contrast, therefore, the Spanish and Italian literature were presented, where the "bad taste " of the Baroque was accused.
The spirit of the cultural defense of the nation was the one who was advocating the establishment of the Accademia Italian intellectuals, as a symbol of a new, national Italian culture. Accordingly, the Academy also dominated the poetic taste of the entire first half of the 18th century the peninsula.
First you turned the extravagance and decadence of the Baroque in the form of " anti - marinism " of the 17th century building opposite. At the same time they were looking for poetry that was simple and would be based on the naturalness of feeling.
Soon, two different tendencies were out within the academy: that of Gravina, who had as role models Dante and Homer; More moderate and those of Crescembini who referred to Petrarch. The resulting dispute led to the exit Gravina from the Accademia. Then he founded in 1711 the Accademia dei Quinti.
However, this argument was not only a literary nature, respected Gravina example, certain ethical values that were alien to the hedonistic poetry Crescembinis.
The most important representative of the Accademia in the 18th century was Metastasio, who was famous for his libretti throughout Europe. With the spread of the Enlightenment and the Romantic Arcadian poetry was rather negatively evaluated and the superficiality and indifference accused in view of the real world. The Academy lost much of its vitality, but can take the historical performance can claim to have developed successively the pre-Romantic and neo-classical poetry.
On January 4, 1788 Goethe was during his second stay in Rome, introduced by the Prince of Lichtenstein, taken with the Shepherd name Megalio Melpomenio in the Accademia. He reported it in his Italian Journey with notification of the diploma issued to him here.
In 1925, she took the name " Accademia italiana letteraria ". Since 1940, the Academy is housed in the Biblioteca Angelica.