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Accademia dei Gelati

Italian academy founded in 1588

Accademia dei Gelati

Coat of Arms
Abbreviation	I Gelati (“the Frozen Ones”)
Formation	1588 (1588)
Dissolved	1786
Headquarters	Bologna, Papal States
Official language	Italian
Remarks	Motto: Nec longum tempus ("It is not a long time")

The Accademia dei Gelati (Academy of the Frozen) was a learned societyofintellectuals, mainly noblemen, that significantly influenced the cultural and political life of Baroque Bologna. It is considered one of the most important 17th-century Italian academies.^[1]

The Accademia dei Gelati was founded in Bologna in 1588 by a group of young gentlemen associated with the university led by Melchiorre Zoppio.^[1] Its members gathered at Zoppio's house, in a marvelous room with a theater and a rich library. Zoppio was one of the Academy's keenest members, adopting the name Caliginoso within it and leaving it a room for its meetings in his will.^[2]

The name of the Academy refers to the academicians belief that their literary conversations would "enflame" their "frozen" intellects.

The subjects of the first meetings were love poetry and the Neoplatonic philosophy of love. Later, the Academy developed a great interest in philosophy. Following Plato's philosophical gatherings, the academicians discussed the most subtle philosophical issues after a friendly dinner. They called these meetings "Cene de' saggi" (dinners of wise men).

Influenced by the example of Bologna’s senior poet, Cesare Rinaldi, the Gelati quickly published two verse anthologies, Ricreazioni amorose (1590) and Rime (1597), which were early landmarks in the transition from Petrarchism to Conceptismo.^[3] Their verse is characterized by extended metaphors which went well beyond the orthodox Petrarchist canon.

As has recently been recognized, the poets of the Gelati, and Rinaldi especially, played an important role in transforming the late lyric style of Torquato Tasso into the highly sensuous and conspicuously ingenious poetry for which Marino is famous, and it was in Bologna that Marino first encountered many of the imaginative techniques that he so brilliantly developed in his own poetry.

Subsequently, led by Claudio Achillini and Ridolfo Campeggi, the Gelati championed the poetry of Giambattista Marino.^[1] Their own later production included much religious verse and tended to the moderate Baroque style typified by another academician, Girolamo Preti.^[1]

They published biographies of their leading members as Memorie imprese, e ritratti de' Signori Accademici Gelati (1670),^[4] and were also involved as theorists in the development of Bolognese Baroque painting. The Academy had close links with many of the most important Bolognese artists of the day. During Agostino Carracci's funeral in Bologna, it was Lucio Faberio, a member of the Academy, who delivered the funeral oration.^[5] The laws of the Accademia dei Gelati were published for the first time in 1670.