Florence's scientific instruments and the Galileo Museum

The text given below was taken from that displayed in the first room of the Galileo Museum in Florence. It gives an historical account of how the material on display in the Museum was preserved and displayed. We also give Paolo Galluzzi's introduction to Room VII of the Galileo Museum.

1. The Scientific Instruments.

1562

Palazzo Vecchio, the Medici Wardrobe.

The Medicean collection of scientific instruments was begun by Cosimo I (1519-1574), who housed it in the Wardrobe of Palazzo Vecchio, known today as the "room of geographic maps". The room was decorated between 1563 and 1581 by Egnazio Danti and Stefano Buonsignori, who painted on the doors of the wardrobes the geography of the known world.

1600

Uffizi Gallery, Room of the Mathematical Sciences.

In 1600 Ferdinando I (1549-1609) transferred the collection in the Uffizi Gallery, in the "room of the mathematical sciences", next to the terrace which, since 1593, housed the huge armillary sphere built by Antonio Santucci.

1657

Palazzo Pitti, the Accademia del Cimento.

With the foundation of the Accademia del Cimento (1657), founded by Ferdinando II (1610-1670) and Leopoldo de' Medici (1617-1675), with headquarters in Palazzo Pitti, the collection was enriched with new instruments for thermometric, barometric and pneumatic research.

1775

Palazzo Torrigiani, the Museum of Physics.

In 1775 the instruments were moved in the Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History founded by Grand Duke Peter Leopold Habsburg Lorraine (1747-1792). Housed in Palazzo Torrigiani, where the Specola Museum is located today, the museum was equipped with an observatory and workshops for the construction of new scientific instruments.

1829

The Museum Workshops.

After their decline during the French occupation (1799-1814), the Museum and its workshops were reorganised thanks to the efforts of outstanding astronomers and physicists. Among these, Giovanni Battista Amici, maker of microscopes, telescopes. micrometres, and spectroscopes, and Leopoldo Nobili, inventor of electromagnetic and galvanometric instruments, and thermo-electric piles.

1841

The Tribune of Galileo.

In 1841, Grand Duke Leopold II (1797-1870) had a sumptuous Tribune dedicated to Galileo built in the Physics Museum, with a statue of the great scientist and depictions of his discoveries and famous instruments. The Renaissance instruments and those of the Accademia del Cimento were also displayed in the Tribune.

1925

The Institute of History of Science is born.

The Istituto di Storia delle Scienze was inaugurated as a department of the University of Florence on 7 May 1925. It was the first institute dedicated to the history of science in Italy. Its aim was to collect scientific instruments, books, archival documents, and anything else useful to tell the history of Italian science. It was opened on the initiative of a physician and history of science enthusiast, Andrea Corsini, who would become the Institute's first director and, five years later, director of the Museum as well. A key contribution came from the "Group for the Preservation of the National Scientific Heritage", which since 1923 had denounced the abandonment of Florentine scientific collections, which after the Unification of Italy in 1861 had been dispersed among diverse university departments.

1927

The Istituto becomes an autonomous body.

In 1927 the Institute of History of Sciences became an autonomous body, as established by a decree of King Vittorio Emanuele III.

1929

The National Exhibition.

In 1929, the new-born Institute organised in Florence the first National Exhibition of the History of Science. The exhibition's resounding success and the strong interest aroused in the historical-scientific collections led to the opening, the following year, of the Istituto di Storia della Scienza and the related Museum in Palazzo Castellani.

1930

The Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Palazzo Castellani.

Since 1930 Palazzo Castellani has housed the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, today known as the Museo Galileo. The building is one of the oldest in the city. Erected in the eleventh century as a castle incorporated into the walls of Florence, it was owned by various families over the centuries. In 1574 it became the seat of a civil law court, the Giudici di Ruota, as evidenced by the coats-of-arms of two magistrates still visible in the building entrance.

1966

The Flood.

After the damage caused by bombing of the Second World War, another severe blow to the collection was struck by the flood of 1966. The instruments housed on the ground floor and in the basement were badly damaged. Thanks to international solidarity and the untiring efforts of Director Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli, it was possible to quickly complete the recovery of the instruments and reopen to the public.

2010

The Museo Galileo.

The Museum was radically renovated in 2010, when it took on the name of Museo Galileo. The new installation focuses on collecting, highlighting the relations between clients, mathematicians and instrument makers in the context of the historical events that advanced the invention and dissemination of scientific technology. The present organisation of the Institute includes, in addition to the permanent display, a research centre promoting publications, journals, exhibitions, and conferences; a research library containing a wealth of ancient texts, modern editions and digital acquisitions, and a multimedia department.

2. Room VII of the Galileo Museum

Galileo's New World

Text by Paolo Galluzzi

The summer of 1609 marked the beginning of the telescopic exploration of the skies that was to lead Galileo (1564-1642) to make sensational discoveries: the surface of the Moon was rough and uneven, grooved with mountains and valleys like the Earth; the constellations contained an infinity of stars invisible to the naked eye; Jupiter was surrounded by satellites, christened the "Medicean Planets" by Galileo; Venus had cyclic phases like those of the Moon; the surface of the Sun was marred by dark spots; Saturn showed bizarre bulges at the sides. These astronomical discoveries heralded a revolution destined to demolish an image of the universe that had lasted for 2000 years.

The ensuing trauma aroused violent antagonism that was to claim Galileo himself as victim. Galileo's telescope was formed of a tube with two lenses mounted at the ends, a plano-convex objective and a plano-concave eyepiece.

He introduced numerous improvements, increasing the magnifying power of the earlier Dutch "spyglasses," and designed accessories that made the telescope not only an instrument of observation but also a device for measuring celestial phenomena.

Galileo managed to tabulate the orbital periods of Jupiter's satellites, recording them on that remarkable analogue computer, the Jovilabe, confident that this would enable him to solve the dramatic problem of determining longitude.

In addition to formulating revolutionary scientific theories, Galileo reached new heights in designing and making innovative instruments. One of these was the geometric and military compasses, a compact device able to perform a number of operations for civil and military use.

Another was the thermoscope, the first step toward the development of the modern thermometer.

He also strove to understand the nature and effects of magnetic attraction, as shown by his theoretical studies and experimentation with magnets.

Research on the nature and laws of motion was a theme that traversed Galileo's whole career, culminating in his rejection of the Aristotelian concept of motion in favour of a vision founded on new principles: the acceleration of natural motion and its proportionality with time, the conservation and composition of motion, the parabolic trajectory of projectiles, the infinite force of impact, etc. This radical reform of Aristotle's dynamics opened the way to the definitive affirmation of the Copernican position.

From his earliest writings, Galileo expressed unlimited admiration for Archimedes, systematically applying his geometrical methods in dealing with questions of physics. This approach was Galileo's fundamental contribution to the science of mechanics, instrumental to the understanding of such crucial concepts as momentum, gravity, floating and rarefaction. Galileo also laid the basis, again strictly geometrical, for the new science of the strength of materials.

Last Updated December 2025