One of the earliest scientific societies, the Academia Secretorum Naturae was founded in Naples 1560 by Giambattista della Porta, a physician. Accademia dei Segreti, the Academy of the Mysteries of Nature, an "academy of curious men" met at the home of della Porta, but was soon closed down by the order of Pope Paul V under suspicion of sorcery.

Notes

p. 16, Leonard C. Bruno 1989, The Landmarks of Science. First editions from the collections of the Library of Congress. ISBN 0-8160-2137-6