“Seeing Foreign Parts” 1638–1639There I at once became the friend of many gentlemen eminent in rank and learning,
whose private academies I frequented – a Florentine institution which deserves great
praise not only for promoting humane studies but also for encouraging friendly inter-
course. Time will never destroy my recollection – ever welcome and delightful – of
you, Jacopo Gaddi, Carlo Dati, Frescobaldi, Coltellini, Buonmattei, Chimentelli,
Francini, and many others. (CPW IV.1, 615–17)This summary in Milton’s Defensio Secunda – and no doubt some of his verbal
descriptions – are echoed in Edward Phillips’s account of his uncle’s stay in Flor-
ence:
In this City he met with many charming Objects, which Invited him to stay a longer
time than he intended; the pleasant Scituation of the Place, the Nobleness of the
Structures, the exact Humanity and Civility of the Inhabitants, the more Polite and
Refined sort of Language there, than elsewhere. During the time of his stay here,
which was about Two Months, he Visited all the private Academies of the City,
which are Places establish’d for the improvement of Wit and Learning, and main-
tained a Correspondence and perpetual Friendship among Gentlemen fitly qualified
for such an Institution: and such sort of Academies there are in all or most of the most
noted Cities in Italy. Visiting these Places, he was soon taken notice of by the most
Learned and Ingenious of the Nobility, and the Grand Wits of Florence, who caress’d
him with all the Honours and Civilities imaginable; particularly Jacobo Gaddi, Carolo
Dati, Antonio Francini, Frescobaldo, Cultellino, Bonmatthei, and Clementillo: Whereof Gaddi
[Francini] hath a large Elegant Italian Canzonet in his Praise: Dati, a Latin Epistle; both
Printed before his Latin Poems. (EL 56–7)The tradition of the Florentine academies originated with the famous Neoplatonic
Academy of Cosimo de Medici and Ficino, which looked back to Plato’s Academy
for its inspiration, and which had helped to renew the intellectual life of Europe.^11
If its Seicento descendants – constrained by Tridentine orthodoxy, weighed down
by pedantry, and often distracted by frivolities – fell off from that ideal, they none-
theless had it in memory. The academies met frequently, sometimes weekly, under
the aegis of a princely or noble patron; often they took ironic names and their
members adopted cryptic nicknames. Their activities, carefully recorded by a secre-
tary, involved literary readings or recitations of new works (followed by critique
and defense), translations of Greek and Latin into Italian, analyses of ancient and
modern texts (Petrarch was especially popular), and debates on linguistic and other
topics. Many, especially in Naples, proscribed and scrupulously avoided any form
of theological debate or analysis of scripture.^12 Consciously modeled after the Pla-
tonic symposium, they were also convivial meeting places for friends, and often
held sumptuous banquets. Many were notable for welcoming visiting scholars from
abroad.
During the years 1635–9 the celebrated Florentine Academy had presentations