The Accademia degli Infiammati ("Academy of the Burning Ones") was a short-lived but influential philosophical

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 and literary

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

 academy

Academy

An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...

 in Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

. It was founded in 1540 by Leone Orsini, and was dissolved somewhere between 1545 and 1550.

This academy should not be confused with another Accademia degli Infiammati which was established at Forlimpopoli

Forlimpopoli

Forlimpopoli is a town and comune in the Province of Forlì-Cesena, northern Italy. It is located on the Via Emilia between Cesena and Forlì.-History:...

 in 1624 by Dominican

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

 friar Giovanni della Robbia

Giovanni della Robbia

thumb|250px|Saint Sebastian, [[Musée du Louvre]], Paris.Giovanni della Robbia was an Italian Renaissance ceramic artist. He was the son of Andrea della Robbia and grandnephew of Luca della Robbia....

.

The Paduan Academy's emblem featured Hercules

Hercules

Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...

 on fire on Mount Oite, with the motto Arso il mortale al ciel n’andrà l’eterno ("Burned being the Mortal, to Heaven will Ascend the Eternal"). Notable members and collaborators were Sperone Speroni

Sperone Speroni

Sperone Speroni degli Alvarotti was an Italian Renaissance humanist, scholar and dramatist. He was one of the central members of Padua's literary academy Accademia degli Infiammati and wrote on both moral and literary matters.-Biography:...

, Benedetto Varchi

Benedetto Varchi

Benedetto Varchi was an Italian humanist, a historian and poet.-Biography:Born in Florence to a family that had originated at Montevarchi, he frequented the neoplatonic academy that Bernardo Rucellai organized in his garden, the Orti Oricellari; there, in spite of the fact that Rucellai was...

, Pietro Aretino

Pietro Aretino

Pietro Aretino was an Italian author, playwright, poet and satirist who wielded immense influence on contemporary art and politics and invented modern literate pornography.- Life :...

, Girolamo Preti Luigi Alamanni

Luigi Alamanni

Luigi Alamanni was an Italian poet and statesman. He was regarded as a prolific and versatile poet. He was credited with introducing the epigram into Italian poetry.-Biography:...

, Ugolino Martelli, Alessandro Piccolomini

Alessandro Piccolomini

Alessandro Piccolomini was an Italian humanist and philosopher from Siena, who promoted the popularization in the vernacular of Latin and Greek scientific and philosophical treatises...

, and Angelo Beolco (el Ruzante)

Angelo Beolco

Angelo Beolco , better known by the nickname Il Ruzzante or el Ruzante, was a Venetian actor and playwright.He is known by his rustic comedies in the Venetian language of Padua, featuring a peasant called "Ruzzante"...

.

Some of the Academy's activities were conducted in Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 and Latin. However, the vulgar Venetian

Venetian language

Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken as a native language by over two million people, mostly in the Veneto region of Italy, where of five million inhabitants almost all can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto, in Trentino, Friuli, Venezia...

 and Tuscan languages became prevalent after Speroni, a staunch defender of the vernacular, presided over the academy in 1542.

In this period the Academy promoted lectures (Lezioni) on vernacular poetry, such as on Bembo's sonnet

Sonnet

A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...

s Piansi e cantai l'aspra guerra and Verdeggi all'Apennin la fronte, e 'l petto, by Martelli, and on Forteguerri's sonnet Ora ten va superbo, or corre altero, by Piccolomini.

In 1540, Giovanni Mazzuoli

Giovanni Mazzuoli

Giovanni Mazzuoli was an Italian composer and organist of the late medieval and early Renaissance eras....

 founded at his home in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

 the Accademia degli Umidi ("Academy of the Wet Ones"). Originally meant to be just a parody

Parody

A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

of the newly-created Paduan Academy, devoted to amateur and burlesque activities, it eventually became the respectable and prestigious Accademia Fiorentina.