The Georgofili of Florence, 1753–1783: From ‘perfect anarchy’ to Royal Academy

Abstract

On 4 June 1753 eighteen people met in a house in Florence’s Piazza Pitti with the purpose of founding an academy whose aim, as stated by the architect of the initiatiôe, was to ‘perfect the highly beneficial art of Tuscan cultiôation’.^{1 Behind this initiatiôe was Ubaldo Montelatici, a Lateran Canon in his early fifties, who had been a lector of philosophy and theology outside Tuscany and on his return had been granted the concession of an abbey near Laterina, where he deôeloped a passion for agriculture while managing its lands}