La Specola (Florence)

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La Specola , with the “turret” of the Osservatorio Astronomico

La Specola is a museum for zoology and natural history in Florence , established in 1771 at the instigation of Peter Leopold von Habsburg-Lothringen, Archduke of Austria and Grand Duke of Tuscany . It is located on Via Romana 17, not far from the Pitti Palace .

The museum collection is based on the natural history collection of the Medici and was known for his collection of anatomical wax models from the 18th and 19th centuries over Florence addition. La Specola is considered to be the oldest scientific museum in Europe. Its name (German: the observatory) goes back to the construction of an observatory in the 18th century. La Specola now forms one of the departments of the Museum of Natural History in Florence and belongs to the university .

history

Grand Duke Peter Leopold (1747–1792) decided in 1771 to merge the grand ducal collections of natural history in Florence and - inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment - to make them accessible to the public. The task of reorganization was entrusted to Felice Fontana (1730-1805), a natural scientist, anatomist and physicist who had been in charge of the Medici Chamber of Art and Curiosities in Palazzo Pitti since 1766 on a grand ducal mandate . In 1771 Peter Leopold acquired the Palazzo of the Torrigiani family in Via Romana, not far from Palazzo Pitti, along with a few adjacent buildings, and had the complex converted for the collection. The Grand Duke financed his museum by selling valuable objects belonging to the Medici, although these had been bequeathed to the city of Florence by will. The basic holdings of the museum consisted primarily of the holdings of the Uffizi , the curiosities from the Medici's chambers of curiosities, as well as the instruments and equipment of Galileo Galileo (1564–1642) and the Accademia del Cimento , founded in 1667 by Galileo's students. In terms of an overall view of animal, plant and human existence, Felice Fontana, appointed director by Peter Leopold, created anatomical models made of wax, which were created in collaboration with artists, anatomists and craftsmen.

La Specola : Room with Felidae

On February 21, 1775, the collection was opened as the Imperial Regio Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale (Imperial and Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History). There were separate visiting hours for the educated and for the people, who had to appear in “clean clothing”. To expand the museum to include meteorological and astronomical holdings, Peter Leopold commissioned the construction of an Osservatorio Astronomico (Italian: la specola ) in 1780 , which later gave the entire museum its name.

Under Ferdinand III. (1769–1824) the museum lost its status as an important center of European knowledge. The University of Florence emerged in 1923 from the establishment of the Istituto di Studi Superiori e di Perfezionamento (Institute for Higher Studies and Further Education) in 1859. Today, La Specola belongs to the university as one of six departments of the Museo di Storia Naturale with its building in Via Romana, now the Institute for Physics and Natural Sciences, and has the official name Museo di Storia Naturale dell'Università di Firenze, sezione die zoologia La Specola .

Stocks

La Specola : hippopotamus called Ippopotamo di Boboli
La Specola : room of the skeletons

The holdings comprise a total of around 3,500,000 pieces, collected between 1770 and 1850. Around 5,500 of these are on display. On the top floor of the Palazzo in Via Romana, 22 rooms house the zoological collection, most of them in their original showcases from the 18th and 19th centuries. The zoological collection consists of specimens from invertebrates , reptiles , fish , birds and mammals , including the old specimen of a hippopotamus . One room is available for temporary exhibitions. The Tribuna di Galilei , which was inaugurated in 1841, is located on the first floor . There, next to a statue of the Italian scholar Galileo Galilei, his memory and the instruments of the Accademia del Cimento are preserved. On the ground floor there is a hall with skeletons.

The collection of anatomical wax models

Anatomical wax models are shown in ten rooms. The Florentine collection of anatomical models is considered to be the most important of its kind. It comprises around 1,400 exhibits. The wax sculptures on display were made between the 17th and 19th centuries. The anatomical models were created on the basis of autopsies . For this purpose, the bodies of the deceased and / or their organs were cast and reproduced in wax (so-called moulages ). There are watercolors of human organs on the walls of the halls, including wax replicas in showcases. In the middle of the halls, human bodies made of wax in various anatomical states are shown in showcases, some of which are lined with velvet. A series of small-format wax scenes by Gaetano Zumbo (1656–1701), formerly in the Medici Collection, shows allegories of transience . In addition to works by Zumbo, works by Clemente Susini can also be seen.

  • Wax skull by Gaetano Zumbo (17th century)

  • Miniature "The Plague" by Gaetano Zumbo (detail)

  • Miniature "Triumph of Time" by Gaetano Zumbo (detail)

  • Full-body sculpture with allusions to the work of Michelangelo

  • Look at the anatomical collection

literature

Web links

Commons : Museo della Specola (Florence)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marta Poggesi (2001), pp. 14, 15.
  2. ↑ Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Felice Fontana . In: Werner E. Gerabek u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of medical history . 2005, p. 409
  3. ↑ Marta Poggesi (2001), p. 14.
  4. ↑ Marta Poggesi (2001), pp. 18-19.
  5. ↑ The hippopotamus is said to have lived in the Boboli Gardens . As a reference to two hippos that allegedly came to Europe, the following is preserved: Vera Descrittione Dell Hippopotamo, Animale Anfibio, que nasce in Egitto. Autore Federico Zerenghi. In Milan 1603 [1] . However, there is no contemporary confirmation of the existence of a hippopotamus in the Boboli Gardens.
  6. ↑ Homepage La Specola ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.msn.unifi.it
  7. ↑ La Specola Anatomical Collection . At: Atlas Obscura (with photo gallery, accessed on July 25, 2018).

Coordinates: 43 ° 45 ′ 52.2 "  N , 11 ° 14 ′ 49.1"  E