The , anglicised as the Lincean Academy, was an Italian accademia active from 1603 to 1651. It was established in Rome in 1603 by Federico Cesi, and was named after the lynx, an animal whose sharp vision symbolizes the acuity that science requires. Galileo Galilei was the intellectual centre of the academy and adopted "Galileo Galilei Linceo" as his signature. Cesi died in 1630, and the academy was dissolved in or before 1651.

During the nineteenth century, it was revived, first in the Papal States and later in the nation of Italy. Thus the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, established in 1936, claims this heritage as the Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei ("Pontifical Academy of the New Lynx-Eyed"), founded in 1847, descending from the first two incarnations of the academy. Similarly, a lynx-eyed academy of the 1870s became the national academy of Italy, encompassing both literature and science among its concerns.

First Accademia

thumb|Federico Cesi

The first was founded in 1603 by Federico Cesi, an aristocrat from Umbria (the son of Duke of Acquasparta and a member of an important family from Rome) who was passionately interested in natural history – particularly botany. Cesi's father disapproved of the research career that Federico was pursuing. His mother, Olimpia Orsini, supported him both financially and morally. The academy struggled due to this disapproval, but after the death of Frederico's father, he had enough money to allow the academy to flourish. The academy, hosted in Palazzo Cesi-Armellini near Saint Peter, replaced the first scientific community ever, Giambattista della Porta's Academia Secretorum Naturae in Naples that had been closed by the Inquisition. Cesi founded the with three friends: the Dutch physician Johannes van Heeck (Italianized to Giovanni Ecchio) and two fellow Umbrians, mathematician Francesco Stelluti and polymath Anastasio de Filiis. At the time of the Accademia's founding Cesi was only 18, and the others were only 8 years older. Cesi and his friends aimed to understand all of the natural sciences. The literary and antiquarian emphasis set the "Lincei" apart from the host of sixteenth and seventeenth-century Italian Academies. Cesi envisioned a program of free experiment that was respectful of tradition, yet unfettered by blind obedience to authority, even that of Aristotle and Ptolemy, whose theories the new science called into question. While originally a private association, the academy became a semi-public establishment during the Napoleonic domination of Rome. This shift allowed the local scientific elite to carve out a place for themselves in larger scientific networks. However, as a semi-public establishment, the academy's focus was directed by Napoleonic politics. This focus directed the member's efforts towards stimulating industry, turning public opinion in favour of the French regime and secularizing the country.

The name "Lincei" 'the lynx-like (i. e., lynx-eyed, sharp-eyed) ones' came from Giambattista della Porta's book Magia Naturalis, which had an illustration of the fabled cat on the cover and the words "[...] with lynx-like eyes, examining those things which manifest themselves, so that having observed them, he may zealously use them". 's symbols were both a lynx and an eagle; animals with, or reputed to have, keen sight (in classical and medieval bestiaries the lynx was reputed to be able to see through rock and "new walls"). The academy's motto, chosen by Cesi, was: "Take care of small things if you want to obtain the greatest results" (minima cura si maxima vis). According to T. O'Conor Sloane, their other motto was Sagacius ista. When Cesi visited Naples, he met with many scientists in fields of interest to him including the botanist, Fabio Colonna, the natural history writer, Ferrante Imperato, and the polymath della Porta. Della Porta was impressed with Cesi, and dedicated three works to the Linceans including a treatise on distillation called De Distillatione, a book on curvilinear geometry called Elementa Curvilinea, and The Transformations of the Atmosphere. Della Porta encouraged Cesi to continue with his endeavours. Membership was banned to monks. Members were ordered to "penetrate into the interior of things in order to know the causes and operations of nature, as it is said the lynx does, which sees not only what is outside, but what is hidden within."

Members

  • Federico Cesi – founder
  • Giovanni Demisiani – Greek theologian, chemist, mathematician, coined name "telescope"
  • Anastasio de Filiis – polymath
  • Johannes van Heeck – Dutch physician
  • Giambattista della Porta – Italian scholar, polymath and playwright
  • Adam Elsheimer – German artist
  • Johann Faber – German physician and botanist, coined name "microscope"
  • Galileo Galilei – Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher
  • Johann Schreck – German Jesuit, Missionary to China and polymath
  • Francesco Stelluti – mathematician
  • Nicola Antonio Stigliola – Italian philosopher, printer, architect, and medical doctor
  • Luca Valerio – Italian mathematician
  • Giovanni Ciampoli – poet, intellectual, Secretary of Briefs to Pope Gregory XV and chamberlain to Urban VIII
  • Virginio Cesarini – poet, intellectual, and chamberlain to Popes Gregory XV and Urban VIII

Accademia re-foundation

In 1801, Abbot Feliciano Scarpellini and Gioacchino Pessuti, with the patronage of Francesco Caetani, founded the Accademia Caetani which took the name of . The period from 1801 to 1840 has been termed the "Second Renaissance" of the Accademia. Conflicting goals and general shifts in the "geo-political scale" left the academy in a state of limbo, which ultimately led to its collapse in the 1840s. In 1949, after the fall of the fascist regime, at the suggestion of Benedetto Croce, the Lincean Academy recovered its independence. A brief history of this period of the Accademia, as well as the complete inventory of publications and documents produced in the same period, can be found in the book by .

Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei

In 1986, the academy was placed under a statute that says it shall be composed of 540 members, of whom 180 are ordinary Italian members, 180 are foreigners, and 180 are Italian corresponding members. The members are divided into two classes: one for mathematical, physical, and natural sciences; the other for moral, historical, and philological sciences.

In 2001, the natural sciences were re-divided into five categories: mathematics, mechanics and applications; astronomy, geodesy, geophysics and applications; physics, chemistry and applications; geology, paleontology, mineralogy and applications; and biological sciences and applications. At the same time, the moral sciences were divided into seven categories: philology and linguistics; archaeology; criticism of art and of poetry; history, historical geography, and anthropology; philosophical science; juridical science; social and political science.

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Entry from Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 (needs merging or discarding)

The Roman prince, Federigo Cesi (1585-1630), a distinguished scholar and patron of letters, assembled in his palace (in which he had a magnificent library, a botanical garden, and a museum of antiquities) a number of scholarly persons, and with them founded (17 August 1603) the "Accademia dei Lincei", so called because they took for their emblem the lynx, as denoting the keenness of their study of nature. According to the usage of the time, the Academy, though dedicated to physical, mathematical, and philosophical studies, made way also for literary pursuits. This intellectual circle was worthy of high praise, for it promoted the physico-mathematical studies, then little cultivated, and offset the prevalent tendency to purely literary studies. In the end it devoted itself particularly to the study of the exact sciences, of which it became the chief academic centre in Italy. It was not until 1657 that its Tuscan rival arose in the ducal "Accademia del Cimento". The Cesi library, to which was added that of Virginio Cesarini, became a powerful aid to scientific labours. Several of the academicians, during the lifetime and under the patronage of Cesi, prepared for publication the great unedited work of Francesco Hernandez on the natural history of Mexico (Rome, 1651). An abridgment of it in ten books by Nardo Antonio Recchi was never published. They contributed also to the issue of the posthumous botanical work of the prince "Tavole Filosofiche". Other colleagues of Cesi, in the foundation of the Academy, were Fabio Colonna, the author of "Fitobasano" (a history of rare plants), and of other scientific works, and Francesco Stelluti, procurator-general of the Academy in 1612, author of the treatise on "Legno Fossile Minerale" (Rome, 1635) and also of some literary works. The Academy gained great renown through its famous Italian members, such as Galileo Galilei, and through such foreign members as Johann Faber of Bamberg, Marcus Velser of Augsburg, and many others. After the death of Prince Cesi, the Academy met in the house of its new and distinguished president, Cassiano dal Pozzo. But notwithstanding all his efforts the association began to decline, insomuch that after the above-mentioned publication of the works of Hernandez in 1651, the "Accademia dei Lincei" fell into oblivion. Its fame, however, had not perished, and when at the beginning of his pontificate Pius IX sought to provide an academic centre for physico-mathematical studies, he resuscitated Cesi's society, and on 3 July 1847, founded the "Pontificia Accademia dei Nuovi Lincei", inaugurating it personally in the following November, and endowing it with an annual income from the pontifical treasury. Its members were divided into four classes: honorary, ordinary, corresponding, and associate; the last were young men who, on the completion of their studies, showed special aptitude for physico-mathematical sciences. The Academy was directed by a president, a secretary, an assistant secretary, a librarian-archivist, and an astronomer. Its headquarters were in the Campidoglio. Its "Proceedings" from 1847 to 1870 fill twenty-three volumes. In 1870 some of the members withdrew from the Academy, which insisted on retaining its papal character. Desirous at the same time of a traditional connection with the past, they reassumed the original name, and thus arose the "Regia Accademia dei Lincei". It was approved and subsidized by the Italian government in 1875, and began its career with an enlarged programme of studies, divided into two classes, the first of which includes physical, mathematical, and natural sciences, and the second, those of a moral, historical, and philological character. It publishes annually its "Proceedings", and is located in the Corsini Palace, whose library, at the disposal of the Academy, is very rich in manuscripts, printed works, and periodicals. It numbers today about one hundred members, besides correspondents and many foreigners. Its members have published important works on the exact sciences, also in the province of philology. Among the latter are the Oriental texts and dissertations of Professor Ignazio Guidi, many of which are of great value for the ecclesiastical sciences. Since 1870 the "Pontificia Accademia dei Nuovi Lincei" has continued its labours and the publication of its annual "Proceedings" bearing upon the physico-mathematical sciences. It has quarters in the palace of the Cancelleria Apostolica, and has a cardinal-patron. On the original "Accademia dei Lincei" see the work of its historian, Giano Planco (Giovanni Bianchi di Rimini), published in the second edition of the above-described work of Fabio Colonna (II Fitobasano, Florence, 1744). The "Statuto" or constitution of the "Lincei" was published in Latin at Rome in 1624. For other information on the two academies, pontifical and royal, see their "Proceedings".

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Prizes

The Accademia regularly awards prestigious prizes to talented researchers and scholars. Notable prizes include:

  • Premio Presidente della Repubblica
  • Feltrinelli Prize
  • Alfredo di Braccio Award for young Italian researchers in Physics and Chemistry
  • Premio del Ministro per i Beni e le Attività Culturali
  • Premio Linceo
  • Premio Internazionale Cataldo Agostinelli e Angela Gili Agostinelli

Footnotes

Notes

References

  • This article draws material from the corresponding article in the Italian Wikipedia, retrieved 09:12, Feb 2, 2005 (UTC)
  • (in Italian), freely available from the Ministero per i Beni Culturali e Ambientali – Dipartimento per i Beni Archivistici e Librari – Direzione Generale per gli Archivi (a branch of the Italian Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali). The complete inventory of the Reale Accademia d'Italia, which incorporated the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei between 1939 and 1944.
  • Walton, S.A., Theophrastus on Lyngurium: medieval and early modern lore from the classical lapidary tradition, 2001, Annals of Science, 2001 Oct;58(4):357-79, PDF on Academia.edu
  • David Freedberg, The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, His Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2002.
  • Official website, with brief history (in Italian).
  • Official website in English
  • Notes on the Accademia dei Lincei from the Scholarly Societies Project
  • The British Library's database of Italian Academies
  • Historic article about the society, Scientific American, "The Oldest Scientific Society", 27 November 1880, p. 340