Recently arranged in a large hall in the oldest wing of the Jesuit-built palace next to the Church of Santa Lucia, now home to the Galvani Classical High School, the museum houses instruments and materials from the historic Physics and Natural Sciences Cabinet of the Royal Galvani High School, founded in 1860. Various museum sections display objects ranging from the 18th century to the present day. Rare instruments on display include a small 18th-century planetarium and an armillary sphere reproducing the Ptolemaic model of the celestial sphere. Still functional are galvanometers and electrostatic machines (notably those by Wimshurst and Holtz dating back to the 19th century). There are also several testimonies of Galvani’s scientific experiments. In what was once the foyer, a classroom from the Royal High School is reconstructed with wooden desks and a teacher’s desk, blackboard, cabinets, and wall maps. Natural sciences are represented, in particular, by the herbarium containing dried plants from Antonio Federico Polonio’s collection. There is also a cabinet dedicated to photography, displaying historic photographic equipment and two photographic viewers, one of which is notably valuable containing sixty slides from the Great War, as well as an impressive collection of glass photographic plates. In the showcases along the walls, stuffed animals, minerals, shells, and insects are collected. For science education, a human skeleton and a primate skeleton are preserved.
Information about the Museum of Historical Instruments of the Galvani High School
Via Castiglione, 38,
40121 Bologna (Bologna)
051226461
llgalv@iperbole.bologna.it
https://www.comune.bologna.it/iperbole/llgalo
Source: MIBACT
