Accademia del Cimento

The Accademia del Cimento (Academy of Experiment), an early scientific society, was founded in Florence in 1657 by students of Galileo, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli and Vincenzo Viviani and ceased to exist about a decade later. The foundation of Academy was funded by Prince Leopoldo and Grand Duke Ferdinando II de' Medici. The tenets of the society included: Experimentation (about everything, in this early period of science) Avoidance of speculation Creation of laboratory instruments Standards of measurement Motto – Provando e riprovando = Proving and proving again (or Trying and Trying again) A publication ’Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell'Accademia del Cimento sotto la protezione del Serenissimo Principe Leopoldo di Toscana e descritte dal segretario di essa Accademia first published in 1666, later translated into Latin in 1731. It became the standard laboratory manual in the 18th century. The Cimento published a manual of experimentation which began the process of standardizing processes, instruments and measurements throughout Europe. Their motto Provando e riprovando means “proving and disproving”, i.e. providing proofs of true facts and confuting false ones, while a literal translation may read "trying and trying again". Unlike many of the other scientific societies formed in the seventeenth century, such as the Accademia dei Lincei (founded 1603), the Royal Society of London (founded 1660), and the Academie Royale des Sciences (founded 1666), the Accademia del Cimento never established rules to make it a formal body. There were no formal rules for joining the society, there was no established meeting calendar and the society never set up an organizational structure. Instead the society remained a close knit group of virtuosi under the direction of their patrons, Prince Leopold of Tuscany and Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, both sons of Cosimo II de’ Medici.