ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the broad questions surrounding the still obscure and complex relationship between the new professional theatrical companies and the Italian literary academies. There is a shortage of systematic, in-depth analysis of this phenomenon, especially compared to the comprehensive scholarly documentation of the comparatively sparse surviving evidence for arte practices in the early decades of its existence. The chapter aims to add some further evidence for interactions between early professional actors and academies, which will help to nuance Domenico Bruni's assertion. It questions why, and which, academies accepted actors as members. The chapter also explains the academic context and examines of some specific cases of interactions between the actors Adriano Valerini and Isabella Andreini with academies in Northern Italy around the end of the sixteenth century. Closing observations on Giovan Battista Andreini signal further developments in the next century.
