The materials collected in three large rooms of the institute illustrate the development of physical sciences over the last three centuries. The seventeenth century is represented, among other things, by the instruments of the optical laboratory of the Spoleto scientist Giuseppe Campani, one of the most famous makers of microscopes and telescopes of the time, whose collection, unique for its completeness and unity, was purchased in 1747 by Benedict XIV for the scientific collections of the Institute of Sciences. Among the eighteenth-century testimonies is the physics cabinet of Lord George Cowper, one of the richest setups of the era, accompanied by documentation.
The nineteenth-century instrumentation includes a Volta pile, among the oldest existing, a prototype vertical astatic galvanometer belonging to Leopoldo Nobili, an Oersted piezometer, a model steam locomotive made in Castelmaggiore in the mid-1800s with materials used for real locomotives. Almost all of Augusto Righi’s equipment follows, the foremost Italian exponent of nineteenth-century physics, while the twentieth century is represented by Quirino Majorana, whose legacy constitutes one of the most significant collections of the museum.
