The German language societies of the seventeenth century found their inspiration in the Italian academies established during the previous one hundred or more years. In Der teutsche Palbaum (The German palm tree) of 1647, Gustav von Hille describes the founding of the first German language society, the Fruit-bearing Society (Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft), in the small town of Köthen in 1617. On the occasion of the funeral of Duchess Dorothea Maria of Weimar, numerous members of the local nobility gathered in the small residence at Anhalt-Köthen to mourn her death; their sorrow was allayed by a discussion of the Italian accademie, to the most famous of which, the Accademia della crusca in Florence, one of the company, Prince Ludwig of Anhalt-Köten, belonged. ... [quoting Hille] "Accordingly it was decided by unanimous vote of the great princely persons present that a similar praiseworthy society was to be begun." ... The founding of the Fruit-bearing Society meant that the paradigmatic Italian academy could be made to reappear in local, German garb. (Newman 33-5)