During the early part of the 17th century, and persisting in some form into the early 18th century, there were a number of proposals for an English Academy: some form of learned institution, conceived as having royal backing and a leading role in the intellectual life of the nation. Definite calls for an English Academy came in 1617, based on the Italian model dating back to the 16th century; they were followed up later, after the 1635 founding of the French Académie, by John Dryden (1664), John Evelyn (1665), and Daniel Defoe (1697).
Historical overview The proposals for an English Academy were initially and typically characterised by an antiquarian interest, for example in heraldry and medieval history. They represented a conservative wing in the larger discussion, and in different ways they informed approaches to the idea of a learned society as an active educational and regulatory body. In fact no such Academy would be set up, though discussion of the perceived need for one continued into the eighteenth century. The development of ideas on the language-regulation function of a putative English Academy was studied initially by Hermann Martin Flasdieck. Flasdieck distinguished three phases: first private initiatives up to the middle of the 17th century; then the Restoration period in which the Royal Society and its membership took an interest; and a later period in which proposals to mirror the French Académie met with serious opposition. Nothing much came directly of such proposals, typically for an "academy royal" or court academy; but they formed part of a wider debate including the role of the universities, and the foundation of new institutions such as the successive Gresham College, Chelsea College, Durham College, and the Royal Society, which had very different fates, as well as the pansophic projects that failed to get off the drawing board.
Elizabethan proposals In the early 1570s Humphrey Gilbert published The erection of an achademy in London, concerned with the education of wards and the younger sons of gentlemen. The proposed course included subjects seen as practical, as well as classical studies. This conception already had a generation of history behind it: in the reign of Henry VIII Nicholas Bacon (with Robert Carey and Thomas Denton) had reported on a project to create a new inn of court, conceived along the lines of a humanist academy. Bacon had then taken the idea further and combined it with legal experience of wardship, and in a paper of 1561 made a recommendation to the queen. The home and library of John Dee at Mortlake from 1570 to the early 1580s has been identified as a prototype 'academy'. His circle included Thomas Hariot and Walter Raleigh, and was closely linked to that around Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland. These groups with Gresham College comprised the centre of English scientific life at the period.
The Elizabethan Society of Antiquaries The College (or Society) of Antiquaries met from around 1586 to around 1607. The membership comprised successful lawyers, members of the College of Heralds, wealthy collectors of old manuscripts and a few professional archivists. They met in London during each law term unless plague intervened. Using the notebook of one member, Francis Tate, Wright dates 22 meetings from 1590 to 1601. Thereafter, meetings became less regular, not only owing to plague but also to the suspicions of the government of James I after 1603. Two subjects for discussion were agreed in advance of meetings and every member was expected to contribute. They aimed to ‘construct a detailed and credible account of the origins and development of the English people.’ Some, influenced by William Camden’s Britannia, tackled the broad historical picture from pre-Roman times; some specialised in common law developments from the twelfth century. However, others began a serious study of the early-medieval origins of English culture and identity. In so doing, they made considerable use of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts in both Old English and Latin to supplement still thin published sources. A large number of the contributions to their discussions were published by Thomas Hearne in the eighteenth century and these give several indications of how the antiquaries worked. For example, on 24 November 1599, the Society chose to discuss the antiquity, etymology and variety of English terms used to measure land. Arthur Agard (or Agarde), the Society’s most respected member, was hesitant:
Although I must confess that in this proposition I have more travelled than in any of the former, for that it concerneth me more to understand the right thereof, especially in that sundry have resorted to me thereabouts to know whether I have in my custody any records that avouch the same in certainty; yet so it fareth with me, that in perusing as well those abbreviations I have noted out of Domesday and other records …, as also those notes I have quoted out of ancient registers and books which have fallen into my hands within these xxx. years, I have found the diversity of measurement so variable and different in every … place in the realm, as I was in a mammering …. Society members consulted Agard for advice on what material might be available. He had been deputy chamberlain of the exchequer since 1570, responsible for what would be a 40-year project to compile inventories of the four treasuries at Westminster, which contained both royal and abbey records. The Society was eventually closed down owing to the disapproval of James I. Those involved included:
Robert Bruce Cotton and others petitioned Elizabeth I to establish a national library and academy, having in mind an institution for antiquarian study. The Society paid attention to the succession to Elizabeth, and then the Jacobean debate on the Union, with union tracts written by Cotton and another member, John Dodderidge, papers read on names for "Britain" in 1604, and Walter Cope, a member and M.P., involved in the parliamentary debate.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
