ACADEMIES OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY France.—The old Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres (or "Petite Academie," founded in 1663) was an offshoot of the French Academy, which then at least contained the elite of French learning. Louis XIV. was of all French kings the one most occu pied with his own aggrandisement. Literature, and even science, he encouraged only so far as they redounded to his own glory. Thus it was that the Academy of Inscriptions arose. At the sug gestion of Colbert a company (a committee we should now call it) had been appointed by the king, chosen from the French Academy, charged with the office of furnishing inscriptions, de vices and legends for medals. It consisted of four academicians : Chapelain, then considered the poet laureate of France ; the abbe Amable de Bourzeis (1606-71) ; Francois Charpentier (162o 1702), an antiquary of high repute, and the abbe Jacques de Cas sagnes (1636-79). Their meetings were principally occupied with discussing the inscriptions, statues and pictures intended for the decoration of Versailles; and their first published work was a col lection of engravings, accompanied by descriptions, designed for some of the tapestries at Versailles. Later Felibien, the learned architect, and the two great poets Racine and Boileau, were added to their number. A series of medals was commenced, entitled Medailles de la Grande Histoire, or, in other words, the history of Le Grand Monarque.
But it was to M. de Pontchartrain, comptroller-general of finance and secretary of State, that the academy owed its institu tion. By a new regulation, dated July 16, 17o1, the Academie royale des inscriptions et medailles was instituted, being composed of ten honorary members, ten pensioners, ten associates, and ten pupils. In 1716 the regent changed its title to that of the Academie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, a title which better suited its new character.
In the great battle between the ancients and the moderns which divided the learned world in the first half of the 18th century, the Academy of Inscriptions naturally espoused the cause of the ancients, as the Academy of Sciences did that of the moderns. During the earlier years of the French Revolution the academy continued its labours uninterruptedly ; and on Jan. 22, 1793, the day after the death of Louis XVI., we find in the Proceedings that M. Brequigny read a paper on the projects of marriage between Queen Elizabeth and the dukes of Anjou and Alencon. On Aug 2 of the same year the last seance of the old academy was held.
In the first draft of the new institute, Oct. 25, 1795, no class corresponded exactly to the old Academy of Inscriptions ; but most of the members who survived found themselves re-elected either in the class of moral and political science, under which history and geography were included as sections, or more generally under the class of literature and fine arts, which embraced an cient languages, antiquities and monuments. In 1816 the academy received again its old name. Perhaps the subjects on which it has shown most originality are comparative mythology, the history of science among the ancients, and the geography and antiquities of France. The old academy has reckoned among its members De Sacy the orientalist, Dansse de Villoison (1750-1805) the phil ologist, Anquetil du Perron the traveller, Guillaume J. de C. L. Sainte-Croix and du Theil the antiquaries, and Le Beau, who has been named the last of the Romans. The new academy in cluded the names of Champollion, A. Remusat, Raynouard, Burn ouf and Augustin Thierry.
In consequence of the attention of several literary men in Paris having been directed to Celtic antiquities, a Celtic Academy was established in that city in 1805. It still exists as La society na tionale des antiquaires de France.
The published Proceedings of the British Academy amount already to 12 volumes. Other publications are Supplemental Papers (1911, etc.) and the annual Schweich Lectures on biblical archaeology, inaugurated in 1908. The Fund has also enabled the academy to forward the work of excavation in Bible lands. The series of Social and Economic Records under the direction of Sir Paul Vinogradoff was started in 1908, with the support of a Gov ernment grant. The publication, by the Clarendon Press, of the facsimile Old Testament of the Codex Sinaiticus (1911-22) was made possible by an anonymous gift. The academy has also pub lished a facsimile of the Caedman ms.
In 1908 the academy organized the commemoration of the tercentenary of Milton's birth. It is helped by the foundation of the annual Master Mind lecture (one of a number of endowments, under the will of the late Henriette Hertz). In 1927 it celebrated its 25th anniversary, the hon. secretary, Sir Israel Gollancz, having held uninterrupted office since the beginning. Among other endow ments may be mentioned the annual Shakespeare lecture, the annual Raleigh lectures on history, the Warton lecture on English poetry; the Philosophical lecture; the Italian lecture; the lecture on aspects of art ; the lecture on English philology and literary history; the Cromer prize for Greek essay; the biennial prize for English studies. The academy administers also the Rose Mary Crawshay prize fund for English literature, an annual prize of I I oo awarded to a woman of any nationality for work on English literature.
The school of oriental studies, now an integral part of the Uni versity of London, was largely the outcome of a scheme sub mitted to the academy in 1904 by the late Prof. Rhys Davids. The organization of imperial studies, now recognized in London and in other British universities, was directly due to proposals made by Sir Sidney Low to the academy in 1912. The English Place-Name Society, founded in 1921 to carry out the survey of English place-names, was inaugurated under the auspices of the British academy in 1923, as the result of a statement submitted by Prof. A. Mawer, now director of the society. The foundation of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem in 1919 was brought about by the academy, in conjunction with the Palestine exploration fund. The establishment of the British school at Jerusalem must take an important place among the more recent efforts of the academy. Among its recent excavations are those on the Hill of Ophel at Jerusalem, the results of which confirm the view as to the site of the city of David. Meanwhile remark able discoveries have been made in the Near East (see ARCHAEOL OGY: Western Asia). Among the enterprises promoted by the academy is the Encyclopaedia of Islam (1908, etc.).
The academy is closely associated with the newly established Union Academique Internationale. The principal proposals of the Union in which the academy is concerned are the following : (a) Corpus vasorum (1922, etc.) ; (b) Catalogue of Alchemical mss. (1926, etc.); (c) Dictionary of Mediaeval Latin; (d) Forma Orbis Romani; and (e) supplements to the Corpora Inscrip tionum graecarum et latinarurn.