Founded in Barcelona in 1729 under the name of Academia, the Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona was an academic institution that inherited from the Academia de los Desconfiados, obtaining the title of Real in 1752, coming under the patronage of the Crown of Spain, which entrusted it, among other tasks, with the preparation of the dictionary of Catalan.

As in other Royal Academies, it focused its tasks on a restricted circle of activities, in this case on language and literature. Thus, it created five chairs that made possible the return of the University of Cervera to Barcelona. Among its members were brilliant personalities of the Renaixença.

Bilingualism was always practised at this academy throughout the 19th century, with a clear predominance of Spanish. Nevertheless, in 1841 and 1857 it organised two poetry competitions that served to reinstate the Floral Games. In 1884, with the publication of the Ortografía de la lengua catalana by Balari i Jovany, A. Blanch and Antoni Aulestia Pijoan, the Academy adopted it as the linguistic standard for Catalan, although it was eventually superseded by the one written by Pompeu Fabra in the 1910s with the support of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans. Even so, the Academy maintained these rules almost until the 1930s, thanks to the efforts of Ramon Miquel i Planas and Francesc Matheu.

Today, the Academy is funded by Barcelona City Council and focuses its activity on philological studies and Catalan literature. Since 1917 it has been based in the Requesens Palace in Barcelona's Gothic Quarter. It has an extensive library, a conference room and publishes various publications related to its activities.