Between Myth and Reality: The Accademia Telesiana

Whether or not Telesio actually founded, or was affiliated to, a scientific academy is a question that has remained constantly ambiguous. Historiography seems to have expressed a tacit desire that has often led to discussion of an Accademia Telesiana or Accademia Cosentina, of which Telesio would have been the founder or re-founder. This contribution revisits the time-honoured question of the ‘Accademia Telesiana’ and the relations between Telesio and his countryman Giovan Paolo Parisio, known as Aulo Giano Parrasio, and his alleged ‘Accademia Parrasiana’. It is a historical reconstruction (from the period of Parrasio’s activity till the end of the 16th century) of a widely spread myth.