The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres is a French learned society founded in 1663 and concerned with the humanities. It is one of the five academies of the Institut de France.
History
The origins of the Académie was a small council of humanists, members of the Académie française, that Colbert décided, in 1663, to have meet regularly in order to receive advice for the Latin inscriptions to be written on the public monuments and on the medals issued to celebrate the events of the reign of Louis XIV.
Organized in 1701, the Académie royale des inscriptions et médailles (Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Medals) took its current title in 1716.
Role
In the words of the Academy's charter, it is:
- primarily concerned with the study of the monuments, the documents, the languages, and the cultures of the civilizations of antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the classical period, as well as those of non-European civilizations.
The Volney prize is awarded by the Institut de France, based on the proposal by the académie.
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