ABSTRACT

Florentine academic culture in the late Renaissance remains understudied and hitherto little has been ascertained regarding the complex relationships such institutions entertained with the Medici régime, even as regards the two most famous academies of this time, the Accademia Fiorentina and that of the Crusca.1 The Alterati are no exception. Indeed, this group has received fairly little historiographical attention in recent decades, despite the central role it played in the academic culture of Medici Florence, from its foundation in 1569 to its disappearance in the late 1620s.2 Furthermore, scholars are hardly ever in agreement on the topic of the political allegiances of the group. While Eric Cochrane and Michel Plaisance seem to operate on the assumption that this academy was on the whole pro-Medicean, Vanni Bramanti, Gaspare de Caro and Henk Van Veen tend to stress the familial and ideological ties of the Alterati to the late Florentine Republic. A third category of scholars, comprising principally Bernard Weinberg, Claude Palisca and Anna Siekiera appear to regard the problem of the Alterati’s political allegiances as largely irrelevant to the understanding of their views on music, poetry or language and neglect to take a stand on the issue.