Founded in 1598, the Accademia della Crusca is the oldest linguistic academy in the world. One of its historical milestones is the production of the first monolingual dictionary of a modern language, the Vocabolario degli accademici della Crusca (1612), which served as a model for the writing of the first dictionaries of the French (1694) and Spanish (1726-1739) languages, among others.

The Accademia della Crusca is integrated by 102 academicians, of whom 44 are ordinary members and the rest are corresponding members. In fact, the current President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, is an Honorary Academician. The Crusca gathers Italian philologists and linguists (ordinary and part of the corresponding ones) and linguists from all over the world. In addition, it enjoys great prestige in Italy and is considered the greatest authority on the Italian language.

Professor Calvo Rigual obtained his doctorate with a thesis on the 1538 translation of Tirant lo Blanch, supervised by Albert G. Hauf and Emili Casanova. He co-authored, with Anna Giordano, the Diccionario Italiano published by Herder. He translated several classics from Italian, such as Galateo by Giovanni della Casa, Sei giornate and La cortigiana by Pietro Aretino, and Venexiana by an anonymous 16th century Venetian author. Moreover, he translated into Italian another Valencian classic, Curial e Güelfa. Anna Giordano collaborated in all translations. He has also created and developed, with M.ª de las Nieves Muñiz Muñiz, the Boscán Project, with a complete catalogue of translations of Italian works into Spanish and Catalan up to 1939.

Calvo founded and directed the Spanish Association of Italian Language and Translation (ASELIT) and is now the president of the Spanish Association of Lexicographical Studies (AELex). He has also been a vising professor at the universities of Turin, Parma and Trento, and has given lectures and talks in different Spanish and Italian universities.

Distinguished figures from Spain have been members of the Accademia della Crusca, such as the 18th century Jesuit Juan Andrés, Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Dámaso Alonso and, more recently, the RAE academicians José Antonio Pascual, Francisco Rico and Darío Villanueva, former director of the institution. The first and only Spanish Italianist to be elected so far was Manuel Carrera Díaz, Professor of Italian Philology at the University of Seville, in April 2022.

The Accademia della Crusca is based in the Villa Medicea di Castello, a 16th century building.