The Accademia dei Gelati (Academy of the Frozen) was a learned society of intellectuals, mainly noblemen, that significantly influenced the cultural and political life of Baroque Bologna.

[1] The Accademia dei Gelati was founded in Bologna in 1588 by a group of young gentlemen associated with the university led by Melchiorre Zoppio.

Influenced by the example of Bologna’s senior poet, Cesare Rinaldi, the Gelati quickly published two verse anthologies, Ricreazioni amorose (1590) and Rime (1597), which were early landmarks in the transition from Petrarchism to Conceptismo.

[1] Their own later production included much religious verse and tended to the moderate Baroque style typified by another academician, Girolamo Preti.

[1] They published biographies of their leading members as Memorie imprese, e ritratti de' Signori Accademici Gelati (1670),[4] and were also involved as theorists in the development of Bolognese Baroque painting.