TheAccademia dei Lincei,[a] anglicised as theLincean Academy, was anItalianaccademia active from 1603 to 1651. It was established in Rome in 1603 byFederico Cesi, and was named after thelynx, 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.[citation needed] Cesi died in 1630,[1] and the academy was dissolved in or before 1651.[2]
During the nineteenth century, it was revived, first in thePapal States and later in the nation of Italy. Thus thePontifical Academy of Sciences, established in 1936, claims this heritage as theAccademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei ("Pontifical Academy of the New Lynxes"), 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.[3]
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The firstAccademia dei Lincei was founded in 1603 byFederico Cesi, an aristocrat from Umbria (the son of Duke of Acquasparta and a member of an important family fromRome) who was passionately interested in natural history – particularlybotany. 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.[4] The academy, hosted inPalazzo Cesi-Armellini near Saint Peter, replaced the first scientific community ever,Giambattista della Porta'sAcademia Secretorum Naturae in Naples that had been closed by theInquisition. Cesi founded theAccademia dei Lincei with three friends: the Dutch physicianJohannes van Heeck (Italianized to Giovanni Ecchio) and two fellow Umbrians, mathematicianFrancesco Stelluti andpolymathAnastasio 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 thenatural 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 freeexperiment that was respectful of tradition, yet unfettered by blind obedience toauthority, even that ofAristotle andPtolemy, 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.[5]
The name "Lincei" 'thelynx-like (i. e., lynx-eyed, sharp-eyed) ones' came fromGiambattista della Porta's bookMagia 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".[6]Accademia dei Lincei's symbols were both a lynx and aneagle; animals with, or reputed to have, keen sight (in classical and medievalbestiaries the lynx was reputed to be able to see through rock and "new walls").[7] 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 toT. O'Conor Sloane, their other motto wasSagacius ista.[8] When Cesi visitedNaples, he met with many scientists in fields of interest to him including the botanist, Fabio Colonna, the natural history writer, Ferrante Imperato, and thepolymath della Porta. Della Porta was impressed with Cesi, and dedicated three works to the Linceans including a treatise on distillation calledDe Distillatione, a book on curvilinear geometry calledElementa Curvilinea, andThe Transformations of the Atmosphere.[9] Della Porta encouraged Cesi to continue with his endeavours.[6] Giambattista della Porta joined Cesi's academy in 1610. While in Naples, Cesi also met with Nardo Antonio Recchi to negotiate the acquisition of a collection of material describing Aztec plants and animals written byFrancisco Hernández de Toledo. This collection of material would eventually become theTesoro Messicano (Mexican Treasury).[9]
The goal was nothing less than the assembly of modern science reflected on the method of observation: the church of knowledge. The Academy was to possess in each quarter of the globalcommunes with adequate endowments to retain membership. These communes were complete withlibraries,laboratories,museums,printing presses, andbotanical gardens. Members frequently wrote letters about their observations. The Lyncæis denouncedmarriage as a "molliseteffeminata requies" (i.e. a soft and feminine rest) which would pose an "obstacle to a life of research".[10] Membership was banned tomonks. 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."[11]
Galileo was inducted to the exclusive Academy on April 25, 1611, and became its intellectual centre. Galileo clearly felt honoured by his association with the Academy for he adoptedGalileo Galilei Linceo as his signature. The Academy published his works and supported him during his disputes with theRoman Inquisition. Among the Academy's early publications in the fields of astronomy, physics and botany were Galileo's "Letters on Sunspots" and "The Assayer", and theTesoro Messicano describing the flora, fauna and drugs of the New World, which took decades of labour, down to 1651. With this publication, the first, most famous phase of the Lincei was concluded. The new usage of microscopy, with "references to magnification tools can be found in the works of Galileo and several Lincei, Harvey, Gassendi, Marco Aurelio Severino—who was probably also in contact with the Lincie—and Nathanial Highmore." Domenico Bertoloni Meli, in Mechanism, Experiment, Disease: Marcello Malpighi and Seventeenth-Century Anatomy (Johns Hopkins University Press: 2011; p. 41). Microscopes were not just by the Lincei for astronomical and mathematical work, but were also used for new experimentations in anatomy, as this was the time of the rise of mechanistic anatomy, and the theories of atomism. Experimentation proliferated across the board. Cesi's own intense activity was cut short by his sudden death in 1630 at forty-five.
The Linceans produced an important collection of micrographs or drawings made with the help of the newly inventedmicroscope. After Cesi's death, theAccademia dei Lincei closed and the drawings were collected byCassiano dal Pozzo, a Roman antiquarian, whose heirs sold them. The majority of the collection was procured byGeorge III of the United Kingdom, in 1763. The drawings were discovered inWindsor Castle in 1986, by art historian David Freedberg. They are being published as part ofThe Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo.[12]
In 1801, AbbotFeliciano Scarpellini andGioacchino Pessuti, with the patronage ofFrancesco Caetani, founded theAccademia Caetani which took the name ofAccademia dei Lincei.[13][14] 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.[14] During the French domination of the Accademia, the institution saw a transition from a private association to a municipal institution.[14] Despite efforts from the early 1800s onward, the Accademia underwent a true revival in 1847, whenPope Pius IX re-founded it as thePontificia Accademia dei Nuovi Lincei, anglicised as thePontifical Academy of New Lincei.
In 1874,Quintino Sella turned it into theAccademia Nazionale Reale dei Lincei, anglicised as theRoyal National Lincean Academy. This incarnation broadened its scope to include moral and humanistic sciences, and regained the high prestige associated with the original Lincean Academy. After the unification of Italy, the PiedmonteseQuintino Sella infused new life into theNuovi Lincei, reaffirming its ideals of secular science, but broadening its scope to include humanistic studies: history, philology, archaeology, philosophy, economics and law, in two classes ofSoci (Fellows).
During theItalian fascist period, the Lincean Academy was effectively replaced by the new Accademia d'Italia, theItalian Academy, but was not fully absorbed by that institution until 1939.[19] In 1949, after the fall of the fascist regime, at the suggestion ofBenedetto 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 byCagiano De Azevedo & Gerardi (2005).
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 formathematical,physical, andnatural sciences; the other formoral,historical, andphilological 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; andbiological sciences and applications. At the same time, the moral sciences were divided into seven categories: philology andlinguistics;archaeology;criticism ofart and ofpoetry; history,historical geography, andanthropology;philosophical science;juridical science;social andpolitical science.
The Accademia regularly awards prestigious prizes to talented researchers and scholars. Notable prizes include:
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