The Accademia Pontaniana was the first academy in the modern sense, as a learned society for scholars and humanists and guided by a formal statute.

[1] Patronized by Alfonso V of Aragon, it was founded by the poet Antonio Beccadelli in Naples during the revival of classical learning and later led by Giovanni Pontano who gave it a more official character to the meetings.

[2] The Accademia Antoniana as it was first called, was founded in 1458, but its origins dates back to 1443 in an academic circle around the Neapolitan scholar and poet Antonio Beccadelli.

The first closure was in 1542 by the Spanish viceroy of Naples Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, Marquis of Villafranca, as part of his harsh policy of "spagnolizzazione" ("Spanish-ization").

Revived in December 1808, and officially recognized by Royal Decree as an academy in 1825, it was again suppressed by the Fascist government in 1934 and its library burned in 1943.