The origins of the Class of Physical Sciences can be traced back to 1690, year of the foundation of the "Accademia degli Inquieti" by Eustachio Manfredi. The decision to focus on the physical and natural sciences, on mathematics and medicine, was supported by Luigi Ferdinando Marsili, when in 1711 the Academy joined the Institute of Sciences. By the 18th century, the Academy had become one of the most important European Academies for the excellence of its scientists, ranking among the world’s most eminent ones. Among its members there were Luigi Galvani, Alessandro Volta, Laura Bassi, Mikhail Lomonosov, Anders Celsius, Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon and many other great Italian and European scientists.
In the 19th century, after suffering an initial decline due to the Napoleonic period, thanks to its medicine, science and mathematics studies, the Academy became the most active research centre in the Bologna area, where future University masters would present their latest findings.
The Academy’s membership has featured Luigi Calori, Antonio Alessandrini, Giovanni Brugnoli, Francesco Rizzoli in the biomedical sciences, Luigi Cremona, Eugenio Beltrami and Ferdinando Paolo Ruffini in mathematics, Augusto Righi and Silvestro Gherardi in physics. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Academy included such internationally renowned members as Marie Curie, Albert Einstein and Guglielmo Marconi.The Fascist era and World War II had disastrous effects on almost all the academies in northern Italy. In the postwar period, the Bologna Academy, through its Class of Physical Sciences, would make all efforts to painstakingly regain its old fame.
At present, the Class of Physical Sciences boasts several areas of excellence, among which stand out the lectures on the most important novelties in medicine, chemistry, engineering, physics, as well as biology.
