|
1603
|
This date is supported by Stillman Drake's article on
Frederico Cesi (1585-1630) on pp.179-180 of v.3 of the
Dictionary of Scientific Biography.
The Accademia dei Lincei (Academy of Lynxes), was founded
in 1603 by Duke Frederico Cesi, and was the earliest society that
appears to have published any proceedings.
The founding members chose the society's name because of the visual acuity
of the lynx. The society's most illustrious member, Galileo, joined in
1609. But the Copernican disputes caused a schism in the group in 1615.
With the death of their
patron, Cesi, the group disbanded in 1630. This was followed soon after by
the ecclesiastical condemnation of Galileo (1633).
According to
Maylender (1926-1930), v.3, p.367, after the
disbanding of the Roman
Accademia dei Lincei in 1630, the centre
of scientific study passed from Rome to Napoli and Florence, where two
illustrious scientific societies carried on the tradition of the
Lincei:
the Accademia degl' Investiganti
(founded 1650 in Napoli) and the
Accademia del Cimento (founded in 1657
in Florence).
For a history of the various attempts to revive the Accademia, the
reader may consult both the Italian and English histories at the website
of its current incarnation, the Accademia
Nazionale dei Lincei
( ).
The reader is advised that neither version of
the history is a simple translation of the other, and that the English
version erroneously indicates that Pope Pius IX revived the Academy in
1817 (the correct date is 1847).
It is interesting that the first substantive revival of the
Accademia dei Lincei was by an
ecclesiastical authority, Pope Pius IX, in 1847 (more than two centuries
after it had been disbanded) when he resurrected it as the
Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei. In 1870 or 1871, the
Accademia split into
two parts, one retaining the ecclesiastical name (which was changed in
1903 to Pontificia Accademia Romana dei Nuovi Lincei),
and the other taking a
secular name Reale Accademia dei Lincei indicating royal
patronage. It is this latter society that later became the
Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.
|
