The Academy Vivarium Novum (or Accademia in Italian) is an international school of higher education in Frascati, near Rome, that hosts approximately 50 resident scholars per year from all over the world.[5][6] The institution is also known as the "World Campus of Humanism".[6][7] Students can spend one or more years immersed in Latin and Ancient Greek[8], which are spoken both in and outside of the classroom, making the Academy a community where Latin serves as the habitual language of communication.[5][7] The active use of these classical languages is considered a method for a quicker and deeper understanding of the classics.[6] It is also believed to help overcome barriers between peoples, as Latin is a "common heritage that belongs to no one and belongs to everyone," putting students from Japan, Nepal, and Europe on the same level.[5][7]
The Academy Vivarium Novum was founded with the intent to preserve the tradition of Renaissance schools, their teaching methods, and the free and critical vision of the world that such an education fosters.[9][7] The core philosophy is based on the idea of human dignity (dignitas hominis), which may be attained only by continuous self-examination.[10][7] The residential program provides a solid cultural education that promotes the values of humanitas and the dignity of man.[7]
History
The institution was founded by Luigi Miraglia, a Latinist and classical philologist, in 1991.[7][11] Its roots trace back to a formative experience in the 1980s on the small, uninhabited island of Vivara in the Gulf of Naples.[7]
The international campus project officially began in 1998, promoted by classical scholars Giovanni Pugliese Carratelli and Gerardo Marotta, who were concerned about the fate of classical disciplines in Europe.[12][7] The Mnemosyne Foundation was subsequently established in 2000 to create the international center.[7]
The Academy was initially situated in Montella, Campania, in the south of Italy.[7] In August 2016, the Academy received the concession for its current headquarters at Villa Falconieri in Frascati, a "Borrominian jewel" of the Castelli Romani, with support from the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and the Ministry of Education.[7][13]
Academic program and philosophy
The main program runs from the beginning of October up to the end of June, aiming to provide students with a strong experience in the Humanities and to achieve a comprehensive grasp of the Latin and Ancient Greek languages.[8][14]
The curriculum is taught entirely in Latin, with frequent excursions into Greek, and includes Latin literature, Ancient Greek philosophy, history, rhetoric, philology, and poetry from the ancient, medieval, humanistic, and modern periods.[7] The study of the classics is framed as a colloquium (dialogue) with those who have preceded them, to reflect on the great problems that afflict humanity.[7]
The philosophical vision encourages students to compare Western and Eastern traditions, seeking the "common root of humanity".[5] Students explore parallels and similarities between the Stoicism of Seneca and the teachings of Confucius, or the ethics of Homer and the Bhagavadgītā.[7] This comparative search for a unique, underlying foundation of humanity is a result of the unitary vision of the human spirit championed by Pugliese Carratelli and Marotta.[7]
The Academy emphasizes that the classics are not a rigid norm to be imitated, but a foundation for a debate that must regenerate and flourish in new forms relevant to contemporary needs, consistent with the principle of nullius addicti iurare in verba magistri (bound to swear by the words of no master).[7]
Socio-economic relevance
The Accademia links humanistic thought to contemporary social and economic issues.[5]
Technology and Ethics: The institution insists on reaffirming the principles of humanity against the "surveillance capitalism" enabled by digital media, to ensure technology remains an aid to man and not a tool for oligarchy.[5]
Urban Regeneration: It has organized international meetings on urban regeneration (*Hereditas urbium*), highlighting that housing inequity is a key difference among citizens. It advocates for urban regeneration that provides a human life of harmony and balance, even for the non-wealthy.[5]
Work: The Accademia has discussed salaried work (*lavoro salariato*) as a form of slavery, where existence is given up for an often-alienating remuneration, a problem that machines could help abolish if not controlled by an oligarchy.[5]
Campus and resources
The Academy is housed in the historic Villa Falconieri in Frascati, a late Renaissance–Baroque complex that has served as a place of study and formation for centuries.[7][13]
Library: The campus holds a library with over 90,000 titles, including many manuscripts and ancient and valuable books.[6][7]
Center for the Two Cultures: The Academy has established a Study Center on the "two cultures" (scientific and humanistic knowledge) to promote their interaction, asserting that no fixed boundaries should prevent them from inspiring each other.[7]
Platonic Lessons: The Academy organizes *lezioni platoniche* (Platonic lessons) "Sotto il platano" (Under the Plane Tree) in the villa's garden, in reference to Plato's dialogue *Phaedrus*.[7]
Musical and theatrical activity
The course of History of poetry and ancient prosody combines ancient verses with music, in order to explain their metrical structure in a more efficient way.[15] The students and faculty maintain two artistic ensembles:
Tyrtarion: The Academy’s musical ensemble, composed of a choir and an orchestra.[7] The ensemble performs pieces of Greek and Latin poetry, accompanied by music taken from medieval codes or early printed books of the Italian and European Renaissance.[7] The choir's name comes from the poets Tyrtaeus and Arion and is well known for its restoration of ancient poetry.[16][17][18]
Vertumnus: A theatrical group that stages ancient, medieval, and Humanistic dramas in their original language.[7]
International collaborations
The Academy collaborates with over one hundred universities worldwide that participate in a consortium to select and send students.[7][13] It works with prestigious institutions such as the Warburg Institute in London and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris.[7]
China Partnership: The Accademia has partnered with the Beijing Foreign Studies University to establish the first Faculty of Western Classical Letters in Chinese history.[7]
Advanced Studies: It established an International School of Advanced Studies in collaboration with ISMEO and the University of Naples "L'Orientale", which hosts recognized scholars from around the world.[7]
Summer course
In order to fund the scholarships for the residential program and to foster effective methods of teaching Latin and Greek, the Academy and the Mnemosyne Foundation organise each year an intensive Summer Course of Latin.[19] This course lasts exactly eight weeks, from the end of June to the middle of August, and aims to bring students to the easy reading of the classics without any previous knowledge. The course is divided into two modules of four weeks, and is open to pupils of all ages and genders.[19]
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