Platonic Academy (Florence)

The Platonic Academy of Florence (Italian: Accademia Platonica di Firenze) was an informal discussion group which formed around Marsilio Ficino in the Florentine Renaissance of the fifteenth century.

[7][8] Ficino became the central figure of an informal group of people interested in his work, who both corresponded and met for intellectual discussions at Montevecchio, at Careggi,[3]: 431  or perhaps in Florence itself.

[3]: 431  Among those who Ficino specifically stated had never been among his auditores ('listeners') are Benedetto Accolti, Leon Battista Alberti, Demetrius Chalcondylas, Cristoforo Landino, Poliziano, Pierleone da Spoleto [it] and Pico della Mirandola.

[3]: 458 According to some accounts, the group continued to meet after the death of Ficino in 1499, centred round Francesco Cattani da Diacceto.

[5] Other accounts give an earlier date of 1492–1494 for the dissolution of the group, suggesting that the meetings in the Orti Oricellari were not directly connected, although many of the same people participated in them.