Founded in 1978 for the International Congress of Enlightenment Studies, the Italian Society of Studies on the Eighteenth Century (SISSD) aims to promote historical research on the eighteenth century in the various areas of study relevant to it.
To this end, it aims to organize meetings, seminars, conferences and congresses, to be a point of reference for information and communication for the activities of individual scholars or groups interested in the various fields of research on the eighteenth century, to pursue any other initiative useful for the dissemination of studies on the age of the Enlightenment. It is a member of The International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS) and cooperates with the other national, regional and associated societies that refer to it.
Consistently with its statutory purposes, since its foundation SISSD has distinguished itself for the promotion of research, working groups, editions of studies, documents and proceedings of conferences, for the organization of various types of meetings and the preparation of exhibitions, also availing itself of the collaboration of Italian and foreign bodies, and in particular of the sister companies belonging to the ISECS.
The Society has also established relations with other cultural bodies and institutions, such as the MURST, the CNR, various Italian and foreign universities, the Italian National Historical Council, the Historical Institute for the Risorgimento, the Basso Foundation, the Institute of the Italian Encyclopaedia, the Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies, the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on European Enlightenment in Halle, the Research Centre on European Enlightenment in Potsdam, the Voltaire Foundation, the Société Montesquieu and other national and international associations of sects.