Gli accademici pianisti dell'Accademia Filarmonica nell'Ottocento (The Accademia Filarmonica’s pianist academicians in the 19^th century), in La musica a Bologna: Accademia Filarmonica. Vicende e personaggi. Bologna, AMIS 2001

During the 19th century, about 2000 musicians became members of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna, and among them about a hundred are names still remembered today. The first rather relevant name is Giuseppe Rossini, Gioacchino’s father, who had the membership in 1801 (n.735), the last one is Lorenzo Perosi, who joined it in 1900 (n.2585). The musicians were grouped in three different classes, players, singers and compositors (ordinary or numerary), but only numerary compositors could hold the official roles of President, Vice-President and Art Councillor. There were four main ways to join the Accademia (as it is still today):
1^st: entrance examination for young musicians, whose curriculum had not yet been considered as satisfactory (typical case: Ferruccio Busoni in 1882):
The musicians who longed for the prestigious academic recognition would submit a written application to the President. The application was followed by a real entrance examination after which – in case of positive evaluation – the name of the musician was submitted to the academic assembly for the final admission upon payment of a tax.
2^nd: admission without exam for musicians of great renown who had explicitly asked for it (typical  case: Liszt in 1839):
Many well-known musicians who longed for the prestigious academic recognition would submit a written application to the President who in turn would submit it to the academic assembly. If the majority agreed upon the admission, the candidate was admitted without exam, upon payment of a tax.
3^rd: admission without examination for musicians of great renown introduced by authoritative academic members (typical case: Hiller in 1877)
This type of admission would take place through the good office of single academicians who stood surety for the candidate; it was a practice based on personal knowledge or recommendation (not in a derogative sense; recommendations have always existed in  the musical profession). There was not the payment of a tax by the candidate.
4^th: admission by acclamation on the part of the academicians (typical case: Verdi in 1867): an internationally famous musicians was introduced by the President to the academic assembly because of the prestige this name would give to the Accademia Filarmonica. Of course no tax payment by the honorary academician was requested.

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