43°43′6.78″N10°23′49.63″E / 43.7185500°N 10.3971194°E /43.7185500; 10.3971194
TheDomus Galilaeana is a cultural and scientific institute and library, dedicated to thehistory of science, located in via Santa Maria #26, inPisa, region ofTuscany,Italy. Currently, the Domus Galilaeana houses a library with more than 40,000 books and important files relating to scientists of the 20th century.
The idea of creating an institute dedicated to the Pisan scientist was born in 1938 in anticipation of the celebrations for the centenary of the First Meeting of Italian scientists held inPisa in 1839. The institute’s formation was the initiative ofGiovanni Gentile and sponsored by the Italian Society for the Progress of Sciences, and was established inRome with a commission to identify goals and objectives of the new society, as well as the city and its location within the city.
The choice fell onPisa. The presentation was made in 1939 in the Aula Magna of theUniversity of Pisa. The Domus Galilaeana received its legal status with the law of 1941.
Since then, the establishment has collected all the ancient and modern publications onGalileo and coordinated studies in thehistory of science, thanks to a large archive and a major library. In 2002 this public institution turned into a foundation, becoming subject to private law.
The Head of the Institute is located in Santa Maria street, in the old Palazzotto Specola, situated between the houses ofAntonio Pacinotti and Gabba. It is not the birthplace of Galileo, which can be found near the tribunal court, but the building that once housed the university library and the observatory tower for astronomical observation. The tower was demolished in the early part of the 19th century because of its instability.
The Domus Galilaeana can not be considered a real museum. Throughout its history it has retained various scientific instruments on behalf of other institutions. It housed the instruments ofEnrico Fermi, now inRome, and equipment belonging toAntonio Pacinotti, now in the Museo degli Strumenti per il Calcolo di Pisa, including the "Macchinetta", the first model of an electric motor generator. Domus has also saved from destruction the CEP, Pisana Electronic Calculator, which forms part of the Museo degli Strumenti per il Calcolo collection. The instrumentation currently present at the Domus is closely bound to the archives found here, along with the "sources" for the experiments on induced radioactivity ofEnrico Fermi, the photographic instrumentation of the astronomerPius Emanuelle and various machines from the Institute of Technical Physics, University of Pisa. Regular courses dedicated to schools are held on the most important characters in the history of science, fromGalileo Galilei to the physicists of the 20th century.[1]
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