Accademia

Italian society for the encouragement and furtherance of science and/or the arts. An ‘Accademia di Platone’ was founded, on Plato's model, at the Medici court of Florence in 1470. The earliest academy of any importance devoted primarily to music was the ‘Accademia Filarmonica’ of Verona (1543); later ones included the ‘Accademia di Santa Cecilia’ in Rome (1584) and the ‘Accademia Filarmonica’ in Bologna (1666). In France the movement began with the foundation of the ‘Académie de poésie et de musique’ by Baïf and Thibaut in Paris in 1570, with the aim of promoting the ideals of musique mesurée.