The Partenope class was a group of eight torpedo cruisers built for the Italian Regia Marina in the 1880s and 1890s. The class comprised Partenope, Minerva, Euridice, Urania, Iride, Aretusa, Caprera, and Calatafimi. Based on the earlier cruiser Tripoli, the Partenope class represented a temporary embrace of the Jeune École, which emphasized the use of cheap torpedo-armed vessels as a means to defeat the much more expensive ironclad battleships of the day. To fulfill their intended role, the vessels were armed with five or six 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes.

Minerva was a torpedo cruiser of the Partenope class built for the Italian Regia Marina in the 1880s. The second of eight ships, Minerva was built by Gio. Ansaldo & C.; her keel was laid down in February 1889, she was launched in February 1892, and she was commissioned in August that year. Her main armament were her five torpedo tubes, which were supported by a battery of ten small-caliber guns. Minerva spent most of her career in the main Italian fleet, where she was primarily occupied with training exercises. She was converted into a minelayer in 1909–1910. She did not see significant action during the Italo-Turkish War in 1911 or World War I in 1915–1918, though she was used to lay defensive minefields during the latter conflict. The ship was sold for scrap in 1921.