Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze, detta dei XL

The Academy was founded in 1782 with the name of the Società Italiana, as an "association" of the most illustrious scientists from every part of Italy, on the initiative of mathematician and hydraulic engineer Antonio M. Lorgna. Among its founding members, in addition to Lorgna, various illustrious names stand out, including Lazzaro Spallanzani, Alessandro Volta, Lodovico Lagrange, and Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich, to name a few: in all, forty scientists, hence the name of Società dei Quaranta (today, the Accademia dei XL, or the Academy of the Forty).
The creation of the Società Italiana gave substance to the patriotic aspirations of Italian scientists to see a united Italy represented, at least in science, even before the geographical and political unification of the country. In the same year of its foundation, the first issue of the Academic Memoirs (Memorie accademiche) was published: in the preface, patriotic concepts state that "Italy's disadvantage is the disunity of her forces" and that, to unite them, it would be necessary to begin to "associate the knowledge and work of many distinguished, separated Italians".
The publication of the Memoirs, a genuine scientific periodical, responded in those times to a necessity that was also practical, since Italian scholars had difficulty in publishing their works, for there was no authoritative, internationally recognized communication tool in Italian at the time that could serve as a point of collection for the national scientific production, as was the case for France and England. The Società dei XL thereafter quickly established itself, and in a few years was regarded as the representative of Italian Science: Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, foreign academies, from French to Russian, and later American counterparts, established relations with the Società Italiana, which, after Lorgna's death, changed its name to the Società Italiana delle Scienze, detta dei XL (the Italian Society of Sciences, known as the Society of the Forty), in 1801.
Supported first by Napoleon Bonaparte then by the Duke of Modena, Francis IV of Austria-Este, as a scientific point of reference for a nation desiring unity, in the period of the unification of the country, there were several attempts to transform the society's structure. In particular, in 1861, the Minister of the newly constituted Kingdom of Italy, Terenzio Mamiani-physicist Stefano Mariannini then being president-proposed to bring together and merge the Società Italiana, the Accademia delle Scienze di Torino, the Istituto Lombardo, the Accademia della Crusca, and the Accademia delle Scienze di Bologna, after the fashion of the Institut de France. A few years later, in 1874, a proposal of Minister Ruggero Bonghi moved-at the time mathematician Francesco Brioschi was President-to merge the Società Italiana with the Accademia dei Lincei. These proposals repeatedly found iron opposition from the members who wanted to maintain a tradition, as well as a sort of moral primogeniture. These attempts were followed by others in the second half of the last century, in particular, for merging with the Accademia dei Lincei, under the presidency of Domenico Marotta in the mid-1960s, and then under the presidency of Beniamino Segre ten years later.
In the Fascist period, the Società Italiana delle Scienze was subjected to the "revising of the Statutes and Regulations of Cultural Institutions", imposed by the regime, which, in fact, placed it under the supervision of the National Ministry of Education, with political, administrative, and bureaucratic limitations, stripping from the Società Italiana that "independent" character which had always distinguished it. In 1936 it was stipulated as an ente morale (nonprofit organization). The events of the war brought a halt to practically all social activities, and after the war it was the serving academic secretary, Domenico Marotta, who took up again the lines of development of the Società Italiana, renouncing the statute imposed by Fascism and furnishing itself, again, with a liberal statute.
The vicissitudes concerning the headquarters of the Academy deserve special mention. The original statute of the Società Italiana provided that the headquarters was to be instituted in the city of residence of the president in office. This provision expressly established a lack of fixed location, with the intention of preventing the society from being preferentially associated with one of the states predating unification.
After the Unification of Italy, the serving president of the Società Italiana, Francesco Brioschi, was the first to raise the question of transferring the seat of the association to Rome, which had recently become the capital, hoping toward a possible merger with the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, of which he had been president for many years.
Only in 1875 did Brioschi's successor, Arcangelo Scacchi, succeed in transferring the headquarters of the Società Italiana from Modena to Rome permanently, to the premises of the Engineering School at San Pietro in Vincoli. Here the Forty remained until 1934, when the Fascist government decreed the legal transfer of the Società dei XL to the Reale Accademia dei Lincei, which at that time was first subjected to a commissioner and then incorporated into the Reale Accademia d'Italia. While formally the Società dei XL is located at Villa Farnesina, starting from 1935 the archive and part of the library were transferred, by academic director Guido Castelnuovo, to the burgeoning School of Mathematics at the University of Rome campus.
In 1951, the Accademia Nazionale dei XL was hosted at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, on Via del Castro Laurenziano, owing to efforts by secretary Domenico Marotta, at that time director of the Institute. In 1965 the Academy had to leave the Institute and move into some spaces at the Banca Nazionale di Agricoltura on Via del Corso. Starting in 1968, it transferred to a rented apartment on Via Nazionale. In 1975, under President Beniamino Segre, the Academy was housed at the Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro in the EUR district of Rome, remaining there for about 20 years.
In 1995, the Academy moved temporarily to Villa Lontana on Via Cassia. The Villa is part of the bequest legally established by attorney Cesare Tumedei in favor of the Academy, with the obligation, as administrator, to liquidate its assets and to use the proceeds for the purchase of cardiology and nephrology machinery to be allocated to hospitals of Rome.
Under the presidency of Gian Tommaso Scarascia Mugnozza, the Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze, detta dei XL, moved into Villa Torlonia. In the year 2000, Villino Rosso became the seat of the presidency, administrative offices, and historical archive. Since 2007 the Scuderie Vecchie (Old Stables) have hosted the historical academic library.
The traditional core of the Academy's activity is the promotion of scientific progress in the mathematical, physical, and natural sciences. The Academy operates mainly through the skills and synergistic efforts of its members, who ensure a permanent connection with the university and research system, both in Italy and abroad. The academic corpus is highly representative of the most current sectors of scientific knowledge and ensures an interdisciplinary approach to dealing with the various topics considered by Academy. Originally the Società Italiana was composed of 40 national members and 12 Foreign Members. Today the category of national members is made up of 40 ordinary members, with a variable number of supernumerary members elected by co-optation, and chosen in sectors keeping the Academy at the forefront of scientific progress. Since 1979 the number of foreign members has increased to 25.
Among the Academy's members are the greatest scholars of Italian science, from Volta to Marconi, from Spallanzani to Golgi, from Pacinotti to Fermi, from Avogadro to Natta, from Ruffini to Severi, from Cotugno to Amaldi, from Cannizzaro to Marini Bettòlo and Scarascia Mugnozza, from Arduino to Dal Piaz; and of international science: from Condorcet to Pasteur, from Franklin to Einstein, from Humboldt to Monod. Seven of its national members have been awarded the Nobel Prize: Marconi, Golgi, Fermi, Natta, Bovet, Rubbia, and Levi-Montalcini.
The historical medals of the Academy, the Medaglia dei XL for Mathematics, and the corresponding medal for Physical and Natural Sciences, constitute the first governmental prizes granted in 1866 by the Kingdom of Italy, immediately after the unification of the country. By royal decree, the government commissioned the Società Italiana delle Scienze to award the medal annually to distinguished Italian scholars of mathematical, physical, and natural sciences. The assignment of medals continues today.
Since 1868 the Academy has also awarded the Matteucci Medal, based on the bequest from the illustrious physicist Carlo Matteucci. Until the establishment of the Nobel Prize, this medal was the highest recognition for physics internationally.

"In Supremae praeminentia digintatis Divini dispositione consilii constituti [...] Auctoritate Apostolica duximus statuendum, quod in Urbem praedicta perpetuis futuris temporibus generale vigeret Studium in qualibet facultate ac docentes ibidem omnibus privilegiis, libertatibus, et immunitatibus concessis doctoribus, et scholaribus in Studiis generalibus commorantibus gaudeant et utantur." These are the words that open the bull with which Bonifacio VIII founded the Studium Urbis in 1303, that is, the University of Rome, today known as Sapienza.
The history of the Studium in its first centuries of life was closely linked to the vicissitudes of the papacy, remaining alive even during the period of the Avignon Papacy, thanks to the good wishes of the Roman municipality. During the modern age, worth mentioning are the reform of Pope Innocent VII, who added the teaching of Greek letters to those of theology, civil law, canon law, and medicine; and the intervention of Eugene IV, who allocated to the University a building in the district of Sant'Eustachio, which remained its location until the 1930s. The building was completed only in 1660, under the pontificate of Alexander VII, who also founded the Biblioteca Alessandrina and restructured the botanical garden. It was during the 16th century that the name Sapienza began to be used for the Studium. The 17th and 18th centuries saw alternations between moments of reform and stalemate. During the Napoleonic period there were several attempts at reform, but with poor results. In 1824 Pope Leo XII established the Congregation of Studies, with authority over the entirety of scholastic material. In 1871, less than two months after the annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy, Lieutenant Alfonso La Marmora extended the rules in force in the kingdom, to Sapienza, as well, by means of a regulation, appointing Clito Carlucci rector. During the liberal period, the University of Rome saw its prestige grow thanks to the increase of professorships, the arrival of highly renowned professors, and the updating of course programs. In 1872 the Casati Law governing education was extended to the territory of the Lazio region, guaranteeing Sapienza a certain didactic and administrative stability; however, the problem of the premises, now insufficient to accommodate the ever-increasing number of students, remained unsolved. At the outbreak of the World War I, the University was also the scene of the clash between interventionists and neutralists, and with Italy's entry into the war, Sapienza was closed, its courtyards transformed into a field hospital. The University was reopened at the end of the war. With the advent of Fascism, many things were destined to change for Sapienza: in fact, the regime issued an organic reform of education, the so-called "Gentile Reform," promulgated in 1923. The new law gave legal status to universities, established the Board of Directors with financial responsibilities, and, finally, established that the rector, by contrast with previous procedures, should be appointed by the minister. Fascism also sought a solution to the age-old problem of the seat for the Rome university, ultimately choosing to bring together the largest number possible of faculties and institutes on the lands near the Policlinico, which had already been earmarked for university construction. With the start of construction work for the university campus, a period of great fervor opened up for Sapienza, which was about to become a modern university city, ready to welcome some 10,000 students, positioning itself as one of the symbols of progress and modernity desired by the Fascist regime. The architectural project was entrusted by Mussolini himself to the architect Marcello Piacentini. Rome's new Città Universitaria was inaugurated on 28 October 1935, so that the Rome university was in the midst of great growth when World War II broke out, and in the city that was devastated by the events leading to the fall of the regime, it continued its activity. Between the armistice and the liberation of Rome, the Academy Senate met only twice: in November 1943 exams were reactivated for the faculties of Jurisprudence and Political Sciences, and in February 1944, parallel courses were opened for professors displaced from the South, and a government commissioner was appointed. After the liberation of Rome, examinations and discussions of degree theses resumed, and the teachings most markedly of Fascist nature were eliminated, such as corporatist law and biological racism. In this same period the process of purging began, conducted at Sapienza in a manner not excessively severe. The teachers who had been expelled for political and racial reasons during the Fascist period were readmitted; the rector returned to being elected by the Academic Senate. In the post-war period Sapienza remained strongly anchored to tradition, at least up to the changes promoted by student protests between the late 1960s and the 1970s. The student protest at Sapienza also had dramatic implications, such as the death of a student, Paolo Rossi, on 27 April 1966 during the clashes between students of the left and right, on the steps of the faculty of letters and philosophy. This event, and the protests and occupations that followed, led to the resignation of the rector, Ugo Papi. For Sapienza the four-year period of 1966-1969 was a time of great clashes, protests, and occupations. We need only recall the clash between students and police in Valle Giulia, described also by Pier Paolo Pasolini in his polemical text "The PCI (Italian Communist Party) for young people," and the occupation by some architecture students of the Sant'Ivo church bell tower at Sapienza, located inside the complex where the university had its seat until 1938. In 1969, under the impetus of student revolts, the government liberalized access to universities. In the 1970s and 1980s, new clashes and riots broke out in universities. The blood tribute paid by Sapienza to terrorism was enormous, inside and outside the walls of the University City-just think of the murders of Moro (1978), Bachelet (1980), and Tarantelli (1985), and the numerous injuries and kneecapping carried out by the Brigate Rosse (red brigades). In the 1980s the growing number of enrollments and consequent overcrowding at Sapienza led to construction of two new universities: Tor Vergata and Roma Tre. At the beginning of the 1990s, a new student protest broke out. The movement, known as Pantera, protested against Minister Ruberti's university reform, which had been interpreted as the first step toward privatization of the university. Despite the protests, the reform was approved and the movement disbanded. Other protests took place during the first decade of 2000, against reforms proposed by various ministers, the most recent being the one approved by Mariastella Gelmini. Sapienza is still one of the largest universities in Europe today, in terms of number of students, professors, technical staff, and educational offering. In 2010, the university adopted a new statute providing for 11 faculties, with coordination and supervisory duties, and 63 departments with tasks relating to research and teaching.