Academia secretorum naturae

A group of scholars with a shared interest in the natural sciences who met at the house of the writer and scientist Giambattista della Porta in Naples, Italy, from 1560. The first true scientific academy in Europe, it was condemned by the Catholic Church in 1580 and closed soon after.

Membership was open to those who had made some contribution to the natural sciences, which members discussed at their meetings. The Church was suspicious of its activities both because science seemed to be threatening its intellectual authority, and also because della Porta's interests often strayed into magic and alchemy.