Accademia Romana

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Accademia Romana ( Latin Academia Romana ) is the usual Italian name for the oldest and most famous Roman academy of the Renaissance , which was founded by the humanist Julius Pomponius Laetus around 1464 and was active until the early 16th century.

designation

As with the other academies at the time, it was originally a loose circle of humanistic friends and students of the founder, not an institution with its own rooms and facilities. At the time of Pomponius it was not yet customary to refer to the group as an "academy"; At that time this term was usually understood to mean the university, the Urbis course . The scholars saw themselves as a community of educated people and called themselves that ( sodalitas litteratorum ). It was not until later that the name “Roman Academy” became established. To distinguish it from other Roman academies, the community of scholars founded by Pomponius is also called Accademia Pomponiana .

history

Start time

The academy saw its task in researching the ancient past of Rome and in the renewal and maintenance of ancient Roman traditions. Her work was shaped by Pomponius' concept of a comprehensive historical-philological studies of antiquity , which combined the text-critical study of ancient sources with the exploration of archaeological sites and finds. The members of the academy used Greek or Latin pseudonyms . They met in Pomponius's house on the Quirinal to discuss philological and historical subjects and to recite their own Latin poems and speeches. The friends of antiquity performed comedies by Plautus and Terenz as well as humanistic plays. Prominent academics in the early days were Bartolomeo Platina and Filippo Buonaccorsi (pseudonym: Callimachus Experiens).

crisis

In 1468 a serious crisis broke out in the academy. Academician Platina was dismissed from office in the papal chancellery by Pope Paul II in 1464 as part of an administrative reform, along with numerous other humanists. Since this was a position in life that Platina had received from Paul's predecessor Pius II in return for payment, the deeply offended humanist did not accept this, but threatened the Pope as spokesman for the dismissed with an appeal to a general council. From the Pope's point of view, this was an outrageous provocation. In addition, cardinals reported to the Pope that there was a conspiracy against him in the Academy. Rumors were spread that the conspirators would assassinate the Pope and introduce a republican constitution in Rome.

Rebellious and conspiratorial endeavors directed against the secular power of the popes, citing the ancient Roman republic, had a long tradition in Rome since the 12th century ( Arnold of Brescia ). The humanist Stefano Porcari had undertaken such a republican conspiracy against Pope Nicholas V in 1452-1453 . Therefore Paul took forceful action. In February 1468 he had the academy dissolved and the leading academics arrested and imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo . Pomponius, who had been in Venice since 1467, was extradited to Rome in March 1468. The main suspects were tortured.

The arrested humanists said that the only one of them who had rebellious plans was Callimachus (Filippo Buonaccorsi). Callimachus had evaded arrest by fleeing to Naples and then to Greece in good time. It soon turned out that the arrested scholars were harmless writers and archaeologists. Humanist-friendly cardinals, especially Bessarion , stood up for them. As a result, they were released from custody one by one in 1469. The academy remained banned, however, because its members were also accused of representing immoral and unchristian views and of practicing ancient " paganism ". Platina later took revenge on Paul II by portraying him as an enemy of education in his life descriptions of the popes, with which he permanently damaged the pope's reputation among posterity.

The accusations against the academics included heresy and high treason as well as “ sodomy ”, which is understood to mean homosexuality. The connection of these three points corresponded to a common medieval scheme; In other charges, too, a close connection was made between sodomy, social upheaval, and heresy. It is widely believed that there was an intrinsic connection between these three actions; they were considered unnatural and characteristic of people who had completely lost their moral standards. In the case of the academy, however, the suspicions were not fictitious: the sources - especially poetry - indicate that homoerotic relationships were actually widespread among academics and were approved in this environment. At the time of his arrest, the founder Pomponius seems to have had a relationship of this kind with the almost twenty-year-old poet and academy member Antonius Septimuleius Campanus (Antonio Settimuleio Campano). Septimuleius, who had made a name for himself with homoerotic epigrams , was among those imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo and died soon after his release as a result of the rigors of imprisonment and torture. Literary glorification of friendship and physical beauty was common among academics, love poetry related to young men was cultivated, and some humanists did not shy away from explicit sexual expressions. When there were allegations, only the sexual practice was denied and the physical attraction justified on the basis of ancient boyhood love . In addition to Socrates , Virgil , whose homoeroticism Pomponius discussed in detail in his biography of the famous poet, was considered a model .

The "second academy"

After the death of Paul II, Pomponius was able to obtain permission for the academy to start again under the humanist-friendly Pope Sixtus IV (1471–1484). As a precaution, this “second academy” took the form of a religious community ( sodalitas ) and was formally institutionalized in 1478 with papal approval. Cardinal Domenico della Rovere , a nephew of the Pope, took over the patronage. Emperor Friedrich III. granted the community the right to coronate poets . In April, the Academy celebrated Parilia (Palilia), an ancient festival to commemorate the founding of Rome. This celebration was superficially associated with the cult of three saints, whose feast day fell on Parilean Day. Together the academy members explored the catacombs , where they immortalized their names. Pomponius was called in his circle of friends (probably jokingly) Pontifex maximus .

Pomponius headed the academy until his death (1498). In the early 16th century the scholarly community was still active in the previous sense, but the catastrophe of the Sacco di Roma (1527) put an end to their activity.

literature

  • John F. D'Amico: Renaissance Humanism in Papal Rome. Humanists and Churchmen on the Eve of the Reformation . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore et al. a. 1983, ISBN 0-8018-2860-0 , pp. 89-112
  • Susanna de Beer: The Roman 'Academy' of Pomponio Leto: From an Informal Humanist Network to the Institution of a Literary Society . In: Arjan van Dixhoorn, Susie Speakman Sutch (Ed.): The Reach of the Republic of Letters. Literary and Learned Societies in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe , Volume 1. Brill, Leiden u. a. 2008, ISBN 978-90-04-17260-9 , pp. 181-218
  • Paola Farenga: Considerazioni sull'Accademia romana nel primo Cinquecento . In: Marc Deramaix u. a. (Ed.): Les académies dans l'Europe humaniste. Idéaux et pratiques . Droz, Genève 2008, ISBN 978-2-600-01175-4 , pp. 57-74
  • Paola Medioli Masotti: L'Accademia romana e la congiura del 1468 . In: Italia medioevale e umanistica 25, 1982, pp. 189-204
  • Richard J. Palermino: The Roman Academy, the Catacombs and the Conspiracy of 1468 . In: Archivum Historiae Pontificiae 18, 1980, pp. 117–155

Remarks

  1. See Concetta Bianca: Pomponio Leto e l'invenzione dell'Accademia romana . In: Marc Deramaix u. a. (Ed.): Les académies dans l'Europe humaniste. Idéaux et pratiques , Genève 2008, pp. 25-56.
  2. ^ Antonio Stäuble: La commedia umanistica del Quattrocento , Firenze 1968, pp. 212-214; Maria Accame: Pomponio Leto. Vita e insegnamento , Tivoli 2008, pp. 60f.
  3. Ulrich Pfisterer : Lysippus und seine Freunde , Berlin 2008, pp. 44–46, 279–285.
  4. Paola Farenga: Considerazioni sull'Accademia romana nel primo Cinquecento . In: Marc Deramaix u. a. (Ed.): Les académies dans l'Europe humaniste. Idéaux et pratiques , Genève 2008, pp. 57–74, here: 62–65; Phyllis Pray Bober: The Legacy of Pomponius Laetus . In: Stefano Colonna (ed.): Roma nella svolta tra Quattro e Cinquecento , Rome 2004, pp. 455–464, here: 459f.
  5. ^ Richard J. Palermino: The Roman Academy, the Catacombs and the Conspiracy of 1468 . In: Archivum Historiae Pontificiae 18, 1980, pp. 117–155, here: 140–142. On pp. 146–152, Palermino offers a list of the names (pseudonyms) of the academy members found in the catacombs and discusses their identification.