When we think of great Italian minds, many artists come to mind and, among scientists and thinkers, there is undoubtedly Galileo Galilei.
In Florence, the Italian city of art, there is the largest museum of science and technology in Italy that offers a journey to discover modern science, the universe, the sea, physics, and the human body. At the Galileo Museum, you can admire one of the most important collections in the world, an expression of scientific research and the power of the Medici family.
A little bit of history
The Galileo Museum is located in Palazzo Castellani, the ancient Castello d'Altafronte, a fortification dating back to the 11th century built on the right bank of the Arno. This palace, rich in history during the years in which Florence was the capital of Italy (1865-1870), was the seat of the Direzione Demaniale e dei Regi Possessi. Afterwards, it passed to the Accademia della Crusca. Since 1930 it has housed the Institute and Museum of the History of Science, founded by Andrea Corsini, a professor at the University of Florence, and Prince Piero Ginori Conti, called the Galileo Museum since 2010. It houses one of the most important collections of scientific instruments in the world, with instruments useful for astronomy, mathematics, and physical and natural sciences.
This museum is considered on par with the Uffizi Galleries when it comes to science. Along the way, you will discover instruments of extreme importance attributed to science and its protagonists. The members of the Medici dynasty and the Grand Dukes of Lorraine considered it important that they are exhibited, including all of Galileo's original instruments that have come down to us, including the only two existing telescopes, the objective lens, the geometric and military compass, and the jovilabe. Cosimo I had managed to unite artists and inventors, and was known to collect their works. In this case, we are not talking about artistic works, but rather scientific works. The definition of science as we understand it today is due to the Grand Duke Ferdinando de Medici, even if it had ties to other disciplines and other knowledge.
What's inside
The museum is divided into 3 floors and is organized according to chronological and thematic criteria. The ground floor displays the collections of mechanical clocks, the first floor is mainly dedicated to the instruments of the Medici collections (from the 15th to the 18th century), while the rooms on the upper floors display mainly the scientific testimonies of the Lorraine era (18th and 19th centuries).
The most important lesson is the most immediate one, letting yourself be guided by curiosity. Sometimes ideas are confirmed over the centuries.
Curiosity: few people know that Galileo had the intuition to use Jupiter and its satellites to position men on the earth and therefore understand the coordinates (longitude). It was a correct idea, but too much earlier than the means and instruments of the time. Today we use the GPS navigator and we can say that it is also thanks to it that we can move around, even in cities that we visit for the first time!
Learn more about Scuola Leonardo Da Vinci in Florence!
Listen to the episode of our podcast 🇮🇹ITALIANO ON-AIR🎙️ about Galileo Galilei:
Scuola Leonardo da Vinci Florence
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