Thus was established the Italian Astronomical Society/Così nacque la Società Astronomica Italiana

Abstract

On January 7th 1920, the Italian Astronomical Society was established in Rome. This was the result of a process of transformation of the old Italian Spectroscopic Society, active from 1871, into a national astronomical society. The Italian Spectroscopic Society had lost its initial purposes at the turn of the century, after the death of its founders, and its transformation was hence debated inside the Italian astronomical community. The process was accelerated and completed under the impulse of the International Astronomical Union, created after the World War I.