The Seventeenth Century 99 



" I Segreti," the Accademia Secretorum Naturae, held in Naples in 

 1560 at the house of Giambattista della Porta (1538-1615) of " liquor 

 lucidus " fame (see Chapter III of this book) . 



At about the same time as the discovery of the Bolognian phos- 

 phor, the first Accademia dei Lincei was formed in Rome. It lasted 

 from 1600 to 1630. In reorganized condition the society still exists. 

 Another society, the Accademia del Cimento, i. e., the Academy of 

 Experiments, was started in Florence a little later, in 1657, and 

 continued for ten years. Its publications, representing the work of 

 its members as a group, appeared together in 1667 and were called 

 " Saggi," or trials. They were translated into English by Richard 

 Waller of London in 1684, and into Latin, with commentaries and 

 new experiments, by van Musschenbroek in 1731. The "Saggi" 

 deal with many physical matters, such as measuring instruments, 

 atmospheric pressure and light, and include triboluminescent phe- 

 nomena, described in Chapter X. In this respect the " Saggi " differ 

 from the " Gesta Lynceorum " (1603-1630) , proceedings of the first 

 Accademia dei Lincei, which included nothing on luminescence. 



Another Italian scientific group, the Philosophi Inquieti met at 

 the house of Conte di Marsigli, a collector and patron of science at 

 Bologna, who donated his collections to the University of Bologna 

 in 1690. With his nucleus of books and apparatus, the Bolognian 

 Institute of Science was formerly established in 1711, and became 

 closely associated with luminescence studies through the work of 

 Beccari and his associates on phosphors, and on luminous animals, 

 the dactyli. Marsigli himself published on the Bolognian phosphor 

 in 1698. 



In England the Royal Society of London was an outgrowth of 

 informal meetings begun in London in 1645, at Oxford in 1649, 

 and then London in 1658, and was chartered in 1662 by Charles II, 

 who took considerable interest in scientific affairs. Its journal, the 

 Philosophical Transactions, containing everything of importance in 

 English science and many papers on luminescence, began publica- 

 tion in 1665. 



The French Academic des Sciences in Paris also started with an 

 informal group of men meeting at various private houses. It was 

 incorporated in 1666 under Louis XIV, and reorganized in 1699. 

 The transient Journal des Sgavans, which contained most of the 

 early proceedings, was first issued in Paris in 1665. The Histoire 

 covered years 1666-1699 and the Memoires of the French Academy 

 followed. It is interesting to note that the first article on lumines- 

 cence in the Journal des Sgavans (April 12, 1666) , on luminous 

 worms in oysters by Auzout and de la Voie, was also the first article 



