n no want of a new school of
prophecy. Baptista Porta went to Rome to justify himself; and, content
to wear his head, placed his tongue in the custody of his Holiness, and
no doubt preferred being a member of the _Accademia degli Oziosi_ to
that _degli Secreti_. To confirm this notion that these academies
excited the jealousy of those despotic states of Italy, I find that
several of them, at Florence as well as at Sienna, were considered as
dangerous meetings, and in 1568 the Medici suddenly suppressed those of
the "Insipids," the "Shy," the "Disheartened," and others, but more
particularly the "Stunned," _gli Intronati_, which excited loud laments.
We have also an account of an academy which called itself the
_Lanternists_, from the circumstance that their first meetings were held
at night, the academicians not carrying torches, but only _Lanterns_.
This academy, indeed, was at Toulouse, but evidently formed on the model
of its neighbours. In fine, it cannot be denied that these literary
societies or academies were frequently objects of alarm to the little
governments of Italy, and were often interrupted by political
persecution.

From all these facts I am inclined to draw an inference. It is
remarkable that the first Italian academies were only distinguished by
the simple name of their founders. One was called the Academy of
Pomponius Laetus, another of Panormita, &c. It was after the melancholy
fate of the Roman academy of Laetus, which could not, however, extinguish
that growing desire of creating literary societies in the Italian
cities, from which the members derived both honour and pleasure, that
suddenly we discover these academies bearing the most fantastical
titles. I have not found any writer who has attempted to solve this
extraordinary appearance in literary history; and the difficulty seems
great, because, however frivolous or fantastical the titles they
assumed, their members were illustrious for rank and genius. Tiraboschi,
aware of this difficulty, can only express his astonishment at the
absurdity, and his vexation at the ridicule to which the Italians have
been exposed by the coarse jokes of Menkenius, in his _Charlatanaria
Eruditorum_.[308] I conjecture that the invention of these ridiculous
titles for literary societies was an attempt to throw a sportive veil
over meetings which had alarmed the papal and the other petty courts of
Italy; and to quiet their fears and turn aside their political wrath,