A few months ago, I had the good fortune to spend a few days in Florence, my favorite Italian city. I've been to Florence several times over the years and I always discover new pleasures even when visiting the traditional tourist attractions, such as the magnificent cathedral and the spectacular art collections of the Uffizi. However, this time, one of my goals was to visit a lesser-known museum that was under restoration on my previous tripthe Institute and Museum of the History of Science (in Italian: Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza).
The museum is housed in an ancient palace, the Palazzo Castellani, which dates back to 1180 when it was originally built as a castle inserted in the walls of the city. Eventually, in 1574, the palazzo became the home of the Florentine
Magistrates Court—the coat of arms of the magistrates can be seen above the doors of the main entrance. Its current use as a museum began in 1930 when the University of Florence transferred its scientific collections from the Uffizi. The building and its contents have gone through many changes since that time. The Museum of the History of Science does not have the size and depth of the great science museums, such as the Deutsches Museum in Munich or Washington's Smithsonian, but it is still a sparkling jewel in the Florentine crown.
Like so much of Florence, the museum owes many of its outstanding collections to the acquisitive Medici family, who were also benefactors of much scientific research during the Renaissance. The museum now has more than 5000 objects, some 1500 of which are on permanent display in the 21 rooms of the museum that are open to the public. Despite the relatively small size of the museum, it takes a full morning or afternoon to walk through the exhibits and, for the interested scientist, a second visit would probably be a good idea.
However, you do not have to take a trip to Florence to pay a visit to the Museum of the History of Science. Instead, you can access the museum's remarkable web site at www.imss.fi.it, which will take you through the exhibits in either Italian or English. I must admit I was skeptical about the value of a museum web site to visitors whose interest might not be as intense as that of a scholar of the history of science. However, I was sufficiently impressed to check out the site before my trip to Florence and I have revisited the site several times since my return.
Each room is presented as a photographic image that can be rotated to examine the entire room, just as a visitor might do. With the click of a mouse the virtual visitor can zoom in on any particular group of objects and "mouse over" them for a description. For example, Room IV on the first floor is devoted to the instruments of Galileo (1564-1642). This room is almost a mini-Galilean museum. The room has several original Galilean instruments, such as the objective lens of the telescope with which, in January 1610, Galileo observed Jupiter's moons for the first time. Rather incongruously, the room also contains the embalmed middle finger of the right hand of the famed scientist, presented in the same way that a religious relic might be found in a cathedral. I think there's some doubt about the provenance of the finger, but the exhibit certainly catches the visitor's attention.
Several rooms of the museum are given over to optical collections. For example, Room V contains the only two telescopes made by Galileo that are known to have survived. Room VI contains some early examples of optical benches and their components. In the same room is an elaborate eighteenth century lathe for grinding lenses. This beautiful brass and mahogany instrument is a work of art in itself. Room VIII is devoted to early microscopes, one dating back to the end of the seventeenth century. Not only are these objects highly functional but they are also a testament to the artistic temperament of the artisans who constructed them.
So, if you are considering a visit to Florence, I highly recommend the Museum of the History of Science (it's in Piazza dei Giudici, close by the Uffizi), but if that's not on your agenda, pay a visit to the web site.