Since
1930 the seat of the museum is in the old palace,
restored several times over the centuries, that
takes its name from its last owners, the Castellanis.
The museum displays a very accurate and important
collection of scientific instruments, the proof
that interest of Florence in science from the
thirteenth century onwards was as great as its
interest in art. The collection, or at least the
oldest core, originates from the interest of the
Medici and Lorraine family in natural, physical
and mathematical sciences. It is well known that
Cosimo I and Francesco de’ Medici encouraged
the scientific and artistic researches in the
Grand Ducal workshops, although even Ferdinando
II and Cardinal Leopoldo promoted and continued,
in the 17th century, physics experiments in the
full light of Galileo's method.
During the 19th century, even Francesco and Pietro
Leopoldo of Lorraine continued this type of collecting
with the aid of qualified specialists like the
abbot Felice Fontana (1730-1805), who was appointed
to direct and increase the collection of the new
Museum of Physics and Natural History, inaugurated
in 1775 in the rooms of the present day Specola
museum, situated in via Romana. Most of the instruments
displayed come from the workshop of the latter
museum and are now exhibited on the second floor
of the Museum of History of Science that also
comprises the old Medici collection originally
displayed at the Uffizi.
The first floor (11 rooms) is dedicated to the
Medici core: quadrants, astrolabus, meridianas,
dials, compasses, armillary spheres, bussolas,
real works of art made by famous Tuscan and European
artists. The museum also exhibits the Galileo's
original instruments, the thermometers belonging
to the Accademia del Cimento (1657-1667), the
microscopes and meteorological instruments. The
second floor (10 rooms) shows a large number of
very interesting and beautiful instruments, mostly
belonging to the Lorraine family, used for mechanical,
electrostatic and pneumatic applications. Other
sections are dedicated to mechanical clocks, sextants,
octants, pharmaceutical and chemical apparatus,
weights and measures. The section dedicated to
medicine displays suggestive obstetrical models
in wax and terracotta, which show a real catalogue
of anomalous positions of the foetus in the womb,
in addition to a collection of surgical instruments
belonging to Giovanni Alessandro Brambilla.
The Institute of History of Science, close to
the museum, owns a very large and old library
with lots of research material that is continuously
updated. The Institute publishes an internal review
on history of science, “Nuncius”,
besides carrying out permanent research work on
the history of science and technique, organising
exhibitions and publishing monographical work,
catalogues of instruments, etc. It also carries
out an intense didactic activity thanks to the
Planetarium on the ground floor. The Institute
also has a photographic laboratory, two restoration
laboratories and a modern IT laboratory.
|
