ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the lectures delivered at the Accademia degli Infiammati of Padua. It presents very general observations about the Italian academies at their earliest stage; but they offer, nonetheless, a good starting point for the considerations. The rich body of surviving evidence enables to examine some important aspects of each form of circulation: the preferences of the author; the public which was addressed; the context and the extent of dissemination. The chapter talks about other similar cases among the Infiammati in order to show that this threefold circulation was a common practice within this academy. A manuscript copy of a lecture on Bembo's sonnet 'Piansi et cantai lo stratio et l'aspra guerra', that he delivered at the Infiammati on the third Sunday of September 1540, is held in Padua, MS BP 1830, fols 2v-14r. Many of Benedetto Varchi's lectures at the Infiammati have survived either as autographs or copies, in complete or partial form.
