A society was formed in Dublin, similar to the Royal Society in London, as early as 1683; but the distracted state of the country proved unpropitious to the cultivation of philosophy and literature. The Royal Irish Academy grew from a society established in Dublin about 1782 by a number of gentlemen, most of whom belonged to the university. They held weekly meetings, and read, in turn, essays on various subjects. They professed to unite the advancement of science with the history of mankind and polite literature. The first volume of transactions appeared in 1788.
Hungary.—The Magyar Tudományos Akadémia (Hungarian Academy of Sciences) was founded in 1825 by Count Stephen Széchenyi for the encouragement of the study of the Hungarian language and the various sciences. It has about 300 members and a fine building in Budapest containing a picture gallery and housing various national collections.
Italy.—The Academia Secretorum Naturae was founded at Naples in 1560 by Giambattista della Porta. It arose like the French Academy from a little club of friends who met at della Porta’s house and called themselves the Otiosi. The condition of membership was to have made some discovery in natural science. Della Porta was suspected of practising the black arts and summoned to Rome to justify himself before the papal court. He was acquitted by Paul V., but commanded to close his academy.
The Accademia dei Lincei, to which della Porta was admitted when at Rome, and of which he became the chief ornament, had been founded in 1603 by Federigo Cesi, the marchese di Monticelli. Galileo and Colonna were among its earliest members. Its device was a lynx with upturned eyes, tearing a Cerberus with its claws. As a monument the Lincei have left the magnificent edition of Fernandez de Oviedo’s Natural History of Mexico (Rome, 1651, fol.), printed at the expense of the founder and elaborately annotated by the members. This academy was resuscitated in 1870 under the title of Reale Accademia dei Lincei, with a literary as well as a scientific side, endowed in 1878 by King Humbert; and in 1883 it received official recognition from the Italian government, being lodged in the Corsini palace, whose owner made over to it his library and collections.
The Accademia del Cimento was founded at Florence in 1657 by Leopold de' Medici, brother of the grand duke Ferdinand II., at the instigation of Vincenzo Viviani, the geometrician. It was an academy of experiment, a deliberate protest against the deductive science of the quadrivium. Its founder left it when he was made a cardinal, and it lasted only ten years, but the grand folio published in Italian (afterwards translated into Latin) in 1667 is a landmark in the history of science. It contains experiments on the pressure of the air (Torricelli and Borelli were among its members), on the incompressibility of water and on universal gravity.
Science in Italy is now represented by the Reale Accademia delle Scienze (Royal Academy of Sciences), founded in 1757 as a private society, and incorporated under its present name by royal warrant in 1783. It consists of 40 full members, who must be residents of Turin, 20 non-resident, and 20 foreign members. It publishes a yearly volume of proceedings and awards prizes to learned works. There are, besides, royal academies of science at Naples, Lucca and Palermo.
Portugal.—The Academia Real das Sciencias (Royal Academy of Sciences) at Lisbon dates from 1779. It was reorganized in 1851 and since then has been chiefly occupied in the publication of Portugaliae Monumenta Historica.
Russia.—The Académie Impériale des sciences de Saint-Petersbourg, Imperatorskaya Akademiya naük, was projected by Peter the Great. The advice of Wolff and Leibnitz was sought, and several learned foreigners were invited to become members. Peter himself drew the plan, and signed it on the 10th of February 1724; but his sudden death delayed its fulfilment. On the 21st of December 1725, however, Catherine I. established it according to his plan, and on the 27th the society met for the first time. On the 1st of August 1726, Catherine honoured the meeting with her presence, when Professor G. B. Bilfinger, a German scientist, delivered an oration upon the determination of magnetic variations and longitude. Shortly afterwards the empress settled a fund of £4982 per annum for the support of the academy; and 15 eminent members were admitted and pensioned, under the title of professors in the various branches of science and literature. The most distinguished of these were Nicholas and Daniel Bernouilli, the two Delisles, Bilfinger, and Wolff.
During the short reign of Peter II. the salaries of members were discontinued, and the academy neglected by the Court; but it was again patronized by the empress Anne, who added a seminary under the superintendence of the professors. Both institutions flourished for some time under the direction of Baron Johann Albrecht Korff (1697–1766). At the accession of Elizabeth the original plan was enlarged and improved; learned foreigners were drawn to St Petersburg; and, what was considered a good omen for the literature of Russia, two natives, Lomonosov and Rumovsky, men of genius who had prosecuted their studies in foreign universities, were enrolled among its members. The annual income was increased to £10,659, and sundry other advantages were conferred upon the institution. Catherine II. utilized the academy for the advancement of national culture. She altered the court of directors greatly to the advantage of the whole body, corrected many of its abuses, added to its means, and infused a new vigour and spirit into its researches. By her recommendation the most intelligent professors visited all the provinces of her vast dominions, with most minute and ample instructions to investigate the natural resources, conditions and requirements, and report on the real state of the empire. The result was that no country at that time could boast, within so few years, such a number of excellent official publications on its internal state, its natural productions, its topography, geography and history, and on the manners, customs and languages of the different tribes that inhabited it, as came from the press of this academy. In its researches in Asiatic languages, oriental customs and religions, it proved itself the worthy rival of the Royal Asiatic Society in England. The first transactions, Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae ad annum 1726, with a dedication to Peter II., were published in 1728. This was continued until 1747, when the transactions were called Novi Commentarii Academiae, &c.; and in 1777, Acta Academiae Scientiarum Imperialis Petropolitanae, with some alteration in the arrangements and plan of the work. The papers, hitherto in Latin only, were now written indifferently in Latin or in French, and a preface added, Partie Historique, which contains an account of the society’s meetings. Of the Commentaries, fourteen volumes were published: of the New Commentaries (1750–1776) twenty. Of the Acta Academiae two volumes are printed every year. In 1872 there was published at St Petersburg in 2 vols., Tableau général des matières contenues dans les publications de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de St Petersbourg. The academy is composed, as at first, of fifteen professors, besides the president and director. Each of the professors has a house and an annual stipend of from £200 to £600. Besides the professors, there are four pensioned adjuncts, who are present at the meetings of the society, and succeed to the first vacancies. The buildings and apparatus of this academy are on a vast scale. There is a fine library, of 36,000 books and manuscripts; and an extensive museum, considerably augmented by the collections made by Pallas, Gmelin, Guldenstadt and other professors, during their expeditions through the Russian empire. The motto of the society is Paulatim.
Spain.—The Real Academia Española at Madrid (see below) had a predecessor in the Academia Naturae curiosorum (dating from 1657) modelled on that of Naples. It was reconstituted in 1847 after the model of the French academy.
Sweden.—The Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps Akademien owes its institution to six persons of distinguished learning, among whom was Linnaeus. They met on the 2nd of June 1739, and formed a private society, the Collegium Curiosorum; and at the end of the year their first publication made its appearance.
