The IRIS archive contains 36 collections of documents concerning the annual meetings of Italian Scientists in the 19th century. These documents exhibit the complex interactions of national, local, and cultural history during the Risorgimento and the important role of the Grand Duchy in the organization of the meetings that were held in Tuscany. Beginning in 1839, the meetings were held every year until 1847. This last meeting was begun in Venice but for political reasons it was interrupted by the Austrian Police. The meetings did not resume until after the Unification of Italy, in 1862, in Siena; the following meeting, in Palermo in 1863, saw the founding of the "Società italiana per il progresso delle scienze" (Italian Society for the Progress of Science).
