508 dated 21 December 1999,[1] and falls under the administration of the Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca, the Italian ministry of education and research.

The Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno, or "academy and company of the arts of drawing", was founded on 13 January 1563 by Cosimo I de' Medici, under the influence of Giorgio Vasari.

[4] Artists including Michelangelo Buonarroti, Lazzaro Donati, Francesco da Sangallo, Agnolo Bronzino, Benvenuto Cellini, Giorgio Vasari, Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli, Bartolomeo Ammannati, and Giambologna were members.

[6] In 1784 Pietro Leopoldo, Grand Duke of Tuscany, combined all the schools of drawing in Florence into one institution, the new Accademia di Belle Arti, or academy of fine arts.

[3] The Galleria dell'Accademia was founded in 1784; it adjoins the Accademia di Belle Arti in via Ricasoli, but is otherwise unconnected with it.