The Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze (lit. 'National Academy of the Sciences'), or more formally L'Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze detta dei XL, and also called the Accademia dei XL (lit. 'Academy of the Forty'), is Italy's national academy of science. Its offices are located within the Villino Rosso, at the corner of via L. Spallanzani and via Siracusa, Villa Torlonia, Rome.
The academy promotes progress in mathematics, physics, and natural sciences; organizes meetings; publishes journals; establishes consultative committees for governmental agencies; and awards scientific prizes.
The academy contains 40 fellows and a variable number of "fellows in excess" who are age 70 and above, and who have been fellows for at least five years. It also contains 25 foreign members.
Contents
History
The academy was founded in 1782 in Verona as the Società Italiana, comprising 40 scientists from various parts of Italy. The idea of forming an academy comprising the leading Italian scientists was put forward in 1766 by the mathematician Antonio Maria Lorgna. By 1781 he had received the support of Alessandro Volta, Lazzaro Spallanzani, Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich and others. In the following year the academy was created as the Società Italiana, with forty members representing the most important Italian scientists of the period.
Notable members
Antonio Maria Lorgna, founding president 1782
Gian Francesco Malfatti, proper member 1782
Felice Fontana, proper member 1782
Gregorio Fontana, proper member 1782
Giordano Riccati, proper member 1782
Lazzaro Spallanzani, proper member 1782
Giuseppe Maria Giovene, proper member 1799
Alessandro Volta, proper member 1782
Roger Joseph Boscovich, proper member 1782
Antonio Scarpa, proper member 1782
Joseph-Louis Lagrange, proper member 1786
Giovanni Battista Venturi, proper member 1786
Giovanni Arduino, proper member 1786
Barnaba Oriani, proper member 1786
Franz Karl Achard, foreign member 1786
Charles Bonnet, foreign member 1786
Ignaz von Born, foreign member 1786
Petrus Camper, foreign member 1786
Pedro Rodríguez, Count of Campomanes, foreign member 1786
Benjamin Franklin, foreign member 1786
Peter Simon Pallas, foreign member 1786
Otto Friedrich Müller, foreign member 1786
Lorenzo Mascheroni, proper member 1791
Joseph Priestley, foreign member 1786
Carl Wilhelm Scheele, foreign member 1786
Giuseppe Piazzi, proper member 1803
Giovanni Aldini, proper member 1804
René Just Haüy, foreign member 1805
Carl Friedrich Gauss, foreign member 1810
Giuseppe Zamboni, proper member 1820
Amedeo Avogadro, proper member 1821
Paolo Ruffini, president 1816-1822
Gabrio Piola, proper member 1828
Macedonio Melloni, proper member 1839
Angelo Secchi, proper member 1854
Carlo Matteucci, president 1866-1868
Antonio Stoppani, proper member 1867
Giovanni Schiaparelli, proper member 1867
Eugenio Beltrami, proper member 1870
Lorenzo Respighi, proper member 1878
Augusto Righi, president (1888-1920)
Luigi Cremona, president 1893-1903
Camillo Golgi, proper member 1896
Stanislao Cannizzaro, president 1903-1910
Tullio Levi-Civita, proper member 1910
Guglielmo Marconi, proper member 1919
Vito Volterra, president 1919-1920
Enrico Fermi, proper member 1930
Giulio Natta, proper member 1964
Enrico Bombieri, proper member 1875
Ennio De Giorgi, proper member 1977
Rita Levi-Montalcini, proper member 1980
Carlo Rubbia, proper member 1984