TheMuseum of Zoology and Natural History, best known asLa Specola, is an eclectic natural history museum inFlorence, centralItaly, located next to thePitti Palace. The nameSpecola meansobservatory, a reference to the astronomical observatory founded there in 1790. It now forms part of theMuseo di Storia Naturale di Firenze. This museum is part of what are now six different collections at four different sites for theMuseo di Storia Naturale di Firenze.
The museum has deep ties with history; parts of the collection can be traced back to theMedici Family. It is known for its collection ofwax anatomical models from the 18th century. It is the oldest scientific Museum of Europe.
This museum is located in the former Palazzo Torrigani at Via Romana 17, near thePitti Palace.[1] The Imperial Regio Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale (The Imperial-Royal Museum for Physics and Natural History) was founded in 1771 byGrand Duke Peter Leopold to display publicly the large collection of natural curiosities such asfossils, animals, minerals and exotic plants acquired by several generations of the Medici. At the time of its opening, and for the first years of the 19th century, it was the only scientific museum orWunderkammer of its kind specifically created for the public to view. It opened on 21 February 1775 to the public.[2]
Today the museum spans 34 rooms and contains not only zoological subjects, such as a stuffedhippopotamus (a 17th-century Medici pet, which once lived in theBoboli Gardens), but also a collection ofanatomical waxes (including those byGaetano Giulio Zumbo andClemente Susini), an art developed in Florence in the 17th century for the purpose of teachingmedicine. This collection is very famous worldwide for the extraordinary accuracy and realism of the details, copied from corpses. Also inLa Specola on display are scientific and medical instruments. Parts of the museum are decorated with frescoes andpietra dura representing some of the principal Italian scientific achievements from the Renaissance to the late 18th century.
The collections include
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