THE VIENNA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 415 



THE VIENNA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



BY EDWARD F. WILLIAMS, 

 CHICAGO, ILL. 



TT^ARLY in the fifteenth century scholars on the continent of Europe 

 - * began to discuss questions in little companies out of which grew 

 what are now known as academies of science. At first these societies 

 were made up of thoughtful men who met to compare their ideas on 

 questions and discoveries which were exciting universal interest. The 

 Academia Pontaniana in Naples was organized in 1433 ; the Academia 

 Platonica in Florence in 1474. The proceedings in these academies 

 were for the most part open to the public, and the work accomplished 

 through them became the means of the formation of the academies of 

 science, which, in most of the capitals of Europe, have filled so promi- 

 nent a place the past century and have done so much to utilize and 

 spread abroad historical, philosophical and scientific knowledge. 



The history and the work of one of these academies, that in Vienna, 

 will, it is believed, be of interest. 



A private academy, the Literaria Sodalitas Danubia, started in 

 Ofen in 1490 by Konrad Pickle, a Frenchman known as Celtes, was 

 moved to Vienna in 1497, where it received into its membership phi- 

 losophers, jurists, doctors of medicine and privy councillors. Its prime 

 object was declared to be to broaden out 'the Humanism' of the time. 

 It continued to prosper while Celtes was its directing spirit, but after 

 his death in 1508 its influence gradually declined. 



Early in the eighteenth century Leibnitz was anxious that an 

 academy should be established in the Austrian capital, similar to the 

 one which in 1700 he had persuaded the King of Prussia to organize in 

 Berlin. 



The central position of Vienna, the prestige of the Austrian gov- 

 ernment and the low estate into which universities all over Europe had 

 fallen led him to visit the city and seek aid from those in authority 

 in carrying out his project. Although his plans received favorable 

 attention, wars with the Turks, opposition from Eoman Catholics, espe- 

 cially from the Jesuits, and the difficulty of obtaining means for the 

 support of an academy prevented their execution. Still Leibnitz per- 

 sisted in urging his plans, and on his fifth visit in 1712 began to be 

 confident that the greatly needed academy would soon be organized. 

 His death the following year led to the abandonment of the project for 

 the time. A Leipzig professor, by the name of Gottsched, in 1749 



