The “Académie françoise” (old French for française) is founded under the patronage of the powerful clergyman and statesman Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII.
Under the auspices of the French monarch, the Académie establishes its headquarters at the Louvre Palace.
The Académie française publishes the first edition of the Dictionnaire it was entrusted to create. It contains 18,000 words.
Amid the turmoil of the French Revolution, and eight months after Louis XVI is executed, “the Immortals” hold their last meeting. Their director hides the body’s founding documents and archives in his home.
France’s new leaders re-establish the Académie française as part of the larger Institut de France, which will include four other Academies. The Institut moves into the building of the Collège des Quatre Nations, on the Left Bank in central Paris.
Victor Hugo is elected a member of the Académie.
Marshal Pétain (elected in 1929) is sacked from the Académie, along with three other members who collaborated with the Nazi regime in occupied France during WWII. His post is left vacant until his death in 1951.
An induction ceremony at the Académie française (for scholar and politician Alain Peyrefitte) is broadcast on French television for the first time.
The Académie française elects its first woman member (novelist Marguerite Yourcenar).
The Académie française launches its website.
The Académie and the Institut de France are home to several well-kept secrets.
An unusual portrait
Grafted doors
Secret staircase
Missing word
Speak not
The chamber where members of the Académie française meet contains two portraits of Cardinal Richelieu, but only one is permanently visible.
A small wooden box on the wall opposite the entrance, and left of a large portrait of Richelieu, hides a painting of the influential minister on his deathbed.
The doors leading to the Académie française’s chambers are not part of the original building
They were brought over from the room in the Louvre where the Académie originally met and are carved with the motto “To immortality”.
There is no obvious way to reach the second floor of the library
A fake bookcase is in fact a door that leads to a narrow staircase going up.
Members of the Académie left out one key word in the first edition of the dictionary.
Published in 1694 and organised by word families, the first edition of the Dictionnaire does not include the word “Français” (French).
New members of the Académie are assigned a permanent seat in the group’s meeting room and can attend gatherings, but…
they are banned from speaking during official meetings for one year.
