Il Museum of Zoology of Rome is one of the oldest scientific museums in Rome. Its origin dates back to the early 19th century, with the zoological collections of the Pontifical Archiginnasio, linked to the Chair of Natural History and Mineralogy, established in 1804 by Pius VII.
Today it is part of the La Sapienza Museum Complex and is located on Viale dell’Università. The zoological museum is primarily a “database” of animal diversity, consisting of collections organized according to different criteria (systematic, zoogeographic, ecological) to allow easy consultation.
The museum is therefore a laboratory where scholars try to understand, organize, and classify animal diversity, with reason and experience, tracing the history of evolution through phylogenesis, but it is also a place of meeting and dissemination both with permanent exhibitions and temporary exhibits. In this way, to the functions of “archive” and “laboratory,” the Museum adds the function of “school,” of educational and scientific dissemination, where problems are illustrated through “objects.”
