[1] The Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana is part of a long tradition of literary and artistic associations that arose in Mantua during the Gonzaga era.

Joseph II, co-ruler with his mother, Empress Maria Theresa, informed Count Firmian, the governor of Lombardy, on 20 July 1767 of his intention to reform the Accademia dei Timidi and open it up to scientific studies.

[2] Following Napoleon Bonaparte's Italian Campaign and the consequent new territorial layout of the city of Mantua, a new plan for the Academy was decided, and it changed its name, assuming the title Accademia Virgiliana on 31 May 1797.

After the Congress of Vienna, important names of renowned scholars, both national and international, were associated with the Academy, including Lazzaro Spallanzani, Cesare Beccaria, Alessandro Volta and Pietro Vincenzo Monti.

[5][6] In the palace, designed by Giuseppe Piermarini and Paolo Pozzo in the neoclassical style, is the Teatro Scientifico (Scientific Theater) by Antonio Galli da Bibbiena, with a bell-shaped plan and four tiers of superimposed boxes, intended for the Academy's solemn events and inaugurated in 1769.

The collection includes mainly scores of musicians active in the 18th century, such as Johann Christian Bach, Baldassarre Galuppi and Francesco Salieri.

A section of the historical archive containing the handwritten dissertations (about 550 are preserved, divided into 20 envelopes, from envelopes 42 to 61) of those who took part, between 1768 and 1796, in the competitions announced by the Academy for the four classes of Philosophy, Mathematics, Physics and Fine Arts; also the monthly dissertations read by the academicians during the periodic meetings and divided into various subject groups: Education, Philosophy, Natural History, Hydraulics, Arts and Crafts, Fine Literature, History, Fine Arts and Music, Archaeology, Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, Hygiene and Surgery, Agronomy, Legislation, Criticism, Mathematics.