L’Accademia degli Icneutici di Forlì: una disamina preliminare

Abstract

Of the Forlì-based academic institutions operating in the 18th century, the Academy of Icneutics remains little-known due to the scarcity of sources relating to it. The recent discovery of an unpublished register by Icneutics secretary Pio Lacchini now offers the possibility of investigating the academic order and tracing their ranks from 1739 to the 1790s. From this preliminary historical and documentary review, the identity of the Icneutics appears interesting for the literary, poetic, and musical fields. Having become a colony of Arcadia in 1740, its members included illustrious figures such as Pietro Metastasio, Camillo Merlini Paulucci, Francesco Algarotti, Giuseppe Santarelli, and Giambattista Morgagni. A comparison between pre-existing sources and recently uncovered ones outlines the religious origins of the colony, several events that marked its fate, and the figures who played an active part in it as well as giving a summary view of some prominent relationships that evince the significance and history of this newly rediscovered group.