Held in Florence in 1841, the Congress had as its main venue the Tribuna di Galileo, inaugurated for the occasion. Six working sections were formed to discuss topical issues: Agronomy and Technology; Geology, Mineralogy and Geography; Physics and Mathematics; Zoology, Comparative Anatomy and Physiology; Botany and Plant Physiology; Medicine.

Before the unification of Italy, the congresses of Italian scientists operated as a kind of itinerant national learned society. Its meetings, which signaled a determination to promote the political unity of Italy, were held in Pisa (1839), Turin (1840), Florence (1841), Padua (1842), Lucca (1843), Milan (1844), Naples (1845), Genoa (1846), and Venice (1847).