della crusca

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The name of an academy founded at Florence in 1582, mainly for promoting the purity of the Italian language. Its emblem was a sieve, and its name referred to its purpose of sifting out the brau or refuse from the language. After a short period of incorporation in the Florentine Academy, it was revived in the early part of the nineteenth century.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. A shortened form of Accademia della Crusca, an academy in Florence, Italy, founded in the 16th century, especially for conserving the purity of the Italian language.