The Accademia Fiorentina and the Question of the Language: The Politics of Theory in Ducal Florence*
Abstract Founded in 1540 as the Accademia degli Umidi, the Accademia Fiorentina quickly assumed a central role in the renewed language debate in Italy. Three Florentine protagonists of the debate, Pierfrancesco Giambullari, Giovambattista Gelli, and Carlo Lenzoni, all penned treatises in defense of contemporary Florentine as a language model, in opposition to solutions advocated by others, particularly Pietro Bembo and his followers, and Giovan Giorgio Trissino. Their writings variously support the expansionist political program of Duke Cosimo de' Medici, while at times contesting his more egalitarian domestic politics and his attempts to limit intellectual freedom.