Accademia della Crusca

Place of Culture Florence, Italy

The Accademia della Crusca (often also just the Crusca) is an Italian institution that brings together scholars and experts in linguistics and philology of the Italian language. It represents one of the most prestigious linguistic institutions in Italy and in the world. Founded in Florence by Leonardo Salviati as an informal group of friends (the "brigade of crusconi") dedicated, as opposed to the pedantry of the Florentine Academy, to playful speeches (the "cruscate"), the Academy was officially established on 25 March 1585, with an inaugural ceremony that followed by two years the period in which its members began to think about the possibility of organizing themselves around a statute (meeting of 25 January 1583). La Crusca is the oldest linguistic academy in the world (1583 ). In its more than four centuries of activity it has always stood out for its strenuous commitment to keeping the original Italian language "pure", publishing, as early as 1612, the first edition of the Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, which served as a lexicographic example also for the French, German and English (but not for the Spanish language, which had published the Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española in 1611, written by Sebastián de Covarrubias, the first lexicographer of a modern language in Europe). Today it is part of the European Federation of National Linguistic Institutions, whose task is to elaborate a common line of protection for all European national languages. For Italy, the Accademia della Crusca and the Opera del Vocabolario Italiano of the CNR participate in the Federation (initiative launched by the National Research Council, moreover in collaboration with the Accademia della Crusca).