Duytsche Academie

An academic society founded in Amsterdam in 1617 by Samuel Coster. Modelled on the academies of the Italian Renaissance, it had an ambitious programme of mathematical, philosophical, and linguistic instruction to be given in Dutch. The academy was also to produce plays. This was the only part of the programme carried through, but the virulently anti-Calvinist stance of its dramas brought it into conflict with the authorities of Amsterdam.

Coster had been a member of the De Egelantier chamber of rhetoric, but he considered its activities were too frivolous and therefore launched his own academy. In 1635, however, his academy merged with De Egelantier.