The French Academy of Sciences (French: Académie des sciences) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, and is one of the earliest Academies of Sciences.

Today, it is one of the five Académies of Institut de France.

History

The Academy of Sciences owes its origin to Colbert's plan to create a general academy. He chose a small group of scholars who met on 22 December 1666 in the King's library, and thereafter held twice-weekly working meetings there. The first 30 years of the Academy's existence were relatively informal, since no statutes had as yet been laid down for the institution. In contrast to its British counterpart, the Academy was founded as an organ of government. The Academy was expected to remain apolitical, and to avoid discussion of religious and social issues (Conner, 2005, p. 385).

The Académie française (French pronunciation: ​[akademi fʁɑ̃ˈsɛz]), known in English as the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French council for matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution, it was restored as a division of the Institut de France in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte. It is the oldest of the five académies of the institute.

The Académie consists of forty members, known informally as les immortels (the immortals). New members are elected by the members of the Académie itself. Academicians hold office for life, but they may resign or be dismissed for misconduct. Philippe Pétain, named Marshal of France after the victory of Verdun of World War I, was elected to the Academy in 1931 and, after his governorship of Vichy France in World War II, was forced to resign his seat in 1945. The body has the task of acting as an official authority on the language; it is charged with publishing an official dictionary of the language. Its rulings, however, are only advisory, not binding on either the public or the government.

The French Academy is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language.

French Academy may also refer to:

See also

An academy of sciences is a national academy or another learned society dedicated to sciences.

In non-English speaking countries, the range of academic fields of the members of a national Academy of Science often includes scholarly disciplines which would not normally be classed as "science" in English. Many languages use a broad term for systematized learning which includes both natural and social sciences and fields such as literary studies, history, or art history, which are not typically considered "sciences" in English. For example, the Australian Academy of Sciences is an organization of natural scientists, reflecting the English use of the term "scientist". There are separate academies for Arts, Humanities and Social Science. The Hungarian "Academy of Science" (Magyar Tudományos Akadémia), however, has members from many other areas of academia. Presumably, the Hungarian term tudomány has been translated as "science" in a broader sense, as it was used in English 200 years ago, and is still used in French and other languages.