ACADEMY, among the moderns, is most commonly used to signify a society of learned men, established for the improvement of any art or science. Charlemagne was the first that established an academy in Europe. Most nations have since followed his example; but Italy has by far the greatest number. In the cities of Piedmont, Ferrara, and Milan, Jarekius reckons 550. We have but few in Britain. In England those of note are, the Royal Society, the Antiquarian Society, Society for the encouragement of arts, and the Academy of Painting; in Scotland, the Edinburgh Society, College of Physicians, and Musical Society; all which see in their proper places.
The French have several academies; as, the Royal Academy of Sciences, for the improvement of physics, mathematics, and chemistry. It was first instituted in 1666, by the assistance of Mr Colbert, comptroller-general of the finances, but was not confirmed by the French king till the year 1696, who, by a regulation dated the 26th of January, new-modelled and put it on a better footing. According to this regulation, the academy was to be composed of ten honorary academicians, eight strangers associates, twenty pensionaries fellows, twenty eleven or scholars, and twelve French associates; these were to be divided into six classes, viz. geometers, astronomers, mechanics, anatomists, chemists, and botanists; the honorary academists to be all inhabitants of France, the pensionaries and eleven all to reside at Paris.
In the year 1716, the duke of Orleans, then regent, made an alteration in their constitution, augmenting the number of honoraries and associates to twelve, admitting regulars among such associates, suppressing the class of eleven, and establishing in lieu thereof a new class of twelve adjuncts to the six several kinds of science cultivated by the academy; and, lastly, appointing a vice-president, to be chosen yearly by the king out of the honorary members, and a director and sub-director out of the pensionaries.
The academies of Florence and Bologna, of Montpellier and Bordeaux, of Leipzig and Berlin, and of late those of Petersburg and Seville, were formed upon the same model with the Royal Academy of Sciences.