La Specola
The Museum of Zoology and Natural History, best known as La Specola, is an eclectic natural history museum in
History
The museum has deep ties with history; parts of the collection can be traced back to the
This museum is located in the former Palazzo Torrigani at Via Romana 17, near the
Today the museum spans 34 rooms and contains not only zoological subjects, such as a stuffed hippopotamus (a 17th-century Medici pet, which once lived in the Boboli Gardens), but also a collection of anatomical waxes (including those by Gaetano Giulio Zumbo and Clemente Susini), an art developed in Florence in the 17th century for the purpose of teaching medicine. This collection is very famous worldwide for the extraordinary accuracy and realism of the details, copied from corpses. Also in La Specola on display are scientific and medical instruments. Parts of the museum are decorated with frescoes and pietra dura representing some of the principal Italian scientific achievements from the Renaissance to the late 18th century.
The collections include
- Entomological collections belonging to:
- Diptera and Hymenoptera
- Ruggero Verity, specimens of Lepidoptera
- Pietro Stefanelli, specimens of Lepidoptera
- Victor Antoine Signoret, specimen of Hemiptera
- Adolfo Targioni Tozzetti
- Fernandino Maria Piccioli
- Coleoptera
- Coleoptera
- Giacomo Damiani, ornithological collections
- Skeleton of the famous Hansken the elephant (1630 – Florence, 9 November 1655)
References
- ^ Pogessi, Marta (2000). “The Anatomical Waxes of “La Specola". pp. 12–21. In: Friess, Peter; Witzgall, Susanne (editors) (2000). La Specola: Anatomie in Wachs in Kontrast zu Bildern der modernen Medizin/Anatomy in Wax in Contrast with Images of Modern Medicine. Bonn: Deutsches Museum Bonn.
- ISBN 3-8228-3848-9
Further reading
- Barsanti, Giulio; Chelazzi, Guido, eds. (2009). Il Museo di storia naturale dell'Università di Firenze. Vol. 1. Florence: Firenze University Press. ISBN 978-88-8453-843-7.