The Museo Galileo Is Home to the Only Surviving Instruments Designed
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The Museo Galileo is home to the only The new exhibition layout presents the historical surviving instruments designed and built by and cultural setting in which the Medici and Galileo himself. The most important are two Lorraine collections were assembled, the places original telescopes and the objective lens of where they were once displayed, the collectors’ the telescope with which Galileo discovered goals, and the activities of the scientists who Jupiter’s moons. More generally, the Museum played the leading role in this enterprise. On is the repository for the priceless scientific display are more than 1,000 instruments and collections of the two dynasties that once ruled devices of major scientific importance and Florence: the Medici and the House of Lorraine. exceptional beauty. The focus of the entire The Museum’s international renown makes the exhibit plan is Galileo. The Medici collections inauguration of the Museo Galileo one of the bear witness to the scientific culture in which key cultural events in the world this year. the Tuscan scientist emerged. The instruments The Museum’s subtitle will preserve its and experimental apparatuses acquired by the earlier name of “Istituto e Museo di Storia Lorraines in the 18th and 19th centuries reflect della Scienza” (Institute and Museum for the the powerful stimulus provided by Galileo’s History of Science). But the new designation discoveries to the development of physical and “Museo Galileo” adopted in 2010 emphasizes mathematical sciences in the modern age. the central role of the Galilean heritage in the The Museo Galileo tells the history of scientific Florentine institution’s activities and cultural activity in Florence and Tuscany centered on profile. The Museum is not only a showcase his emblematic figure. In many respects, this for an invaluable legacy of instruments history is linked to leading-edge international and experimental apparatuses. It operates research conducted in the same periods. Indeed, as an institute engaged in research and the Medici and Lorraines offered patronage and documentation, offering scholars from around support to highly talented scientists responsible the world the resources of its specialized for some of the key theoretical and practical library, also available online. advances in modern science. First Floor Second Floor The Medici The Lorraine Collections Collections VIII IX I II XII XIII XIV XI VII XV III XVI VI V IV X XVIII XVII Museo Galileo Room I The Medici Collections Room X The Lorraine Collections Piazza dei Giudici 1 50122 Florence Room II Astronomy and Time Room XI The Spectacle of Science Tel. +39 055 265311 www.museogalileo.it Room III The Representation of the World Room XII Teaching and Popularizing Science: Mechanics Room IV Vincenzo Coronelli’s Globes Room XIII Teaching and Popularizing Science: Optics, Pneumatics, Electromagnetism Room V The Science of Navigation Room XIV The Precision Instrument Industry Room VI The Science of Warfare Room XV Measuring Natural Phenomena: Atmosphere and Light Room VII Galileo’s New World Room XVI Measuring Natural Phenomena: Electricity and Electromagnetism Room VIII The Accademia del Cimento: Art and Science of Experimentation Room XVII Chemistry and the Public Usefulness of Science Translation: Room IX After Galileo: Exploring Room XVIII Science in the Home Catherine Frost the Physical and Biological World Room I Room II Room III The Medici Astronomy The Representation Collections and Time of the World Over the years the Medici Since antiquity mankind has been fascinated The cultural value of Family, patrons of the by time, viewed as an enigma on both the cosmography in Medici Tuscany arts and science, formed philosophical and the physical level. Without is shown by the enthusiastic a superb collection of succeeding in explaining what time is, astronomy reception of Ptolemy’s scientific instruments has always contributed to defining its units Geography (2nd century that was housed for (year, month, day and hour), on the basis of the A.D.), one of the about two centuries observation of celestial phenomena, developing founding texts of in the Uffizi Gallery precise time-keeping instruments. The need to modern geographical alongside masterpieces control time is mirrored in the two main goals studies rediscovered of ancient and modern pursued by astronomy until the 17th in Florence in the art. The collection, begun century: establishing late 14th century. by the founder of the Grand a calendar to fix the The ambitious Duchy of Tuscany, Cosimo I correct dates of project for the New de’ Medici (1519-1574), religious festivities Wardrobe in Palazzo was further enriched by and recurrent Vecchio, conceived his successors: Francesco I events in civil life; by Cosimo de’ Medici (1541-1587), interested mainly and predicting the (1519-1574) as a grandiose in natural-history collections positions of the theatrum mundi, can and alchemy, and Ferdinando I (1549-1609), who stars and planets also be considered acquired a great number of mathematical, nautical to formulate as an attempt to and cosmographical instruments. Cosimo II astrological assimilate and update (1590-1621) had the unique privilege of adding to predictions. Ptolemy’s Geography. the collection the original instruments of Galileo Before the advent This project was emulated later in the Uffizi (1564-1642) – the geometric and military compasses of the telescope Gallery by Ferdinando I (1549-1609), who conceived and the telescopes. Other instruments, including the – opening new a Cosmographic Room containing representations ingenious glass thermometers, were made for the horizons for exploring of the Medicean domains and a great Ptolemaic Accademia del Cimento, founded by Grand Duke the nature of the celestial bodies model of the universe created by the cosmographer Ferdinando II (1610-1670) and Prince Leopoldo de’ – astronomical instruments, portable ones Antonio Santucci († 1613). The Palazzo Vecchio Medici (1617-1675). Cosimo III (1642-1723) supported in particular, were used mainly for measuring time. and the Uffizi projects form a continuum designed the mathematician Vincenzo Viviani (1622-1703), The Medici collection hosts a large number of the as a summa of 16th-century cosmology to celebrate Galileo’s disciple, and his project to commemorate most refined time-keeping instruments. the Prince’s power. the great scientist that was to continue throughout the 19th century. Room IV Room V Room VI Vincenzo Coronelli’s The Science The Science Globes of Navigation of Warfare Four globes made by the Venetian cosmographer Having consolidated their In 1599 Ferdinando I (1549-1609) had the Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718), famous for the power over Tuscany, the mathematical instruments moved from Palazzo great size of his creations, such as the globes nearly Medici turned their gaze Vecchio to a room dedicated to military architecture four meters in diameter built for Louis XIV, King of toward the sea, hoping in the Uffizi Gallery. The new display explicitly France, are present in the Medici collections. The to win a place in celebrated the “science of warfare” which, with the Museo Galileo’s globes belong to the series made oceanic navigation spread of firearms, had transformed battlefields into by Coronelli at the cosmographic Accademia degli and develop trade a theatre of geometric studies. Mortars compelled Argonauti founded by him in Venice in 1684. These with the East and modifying the geometry of fortresses. Moreover, globes are medium- and small-sized (about one West Indies. These a suitable knowledge of the ratio between the meter and about fifty centimetres in diameter). ambitions favoured weight and range of cannonballs was now required, In 1693 Coronelli described his globe-making the development of calling for precise measurement and computation techniques in the Epitome maritime science operations. Men of arms cosmografica. Hand- effectively contributing were obliged to written or printed to making Leghorn in sheets of paper, the Great Duchy a major called gores, were centre in the Mediterranean. It glued onto a large was equipped with arsenals, naval ball made of wood shipyards, nautical schools and workshops which and papier-mâché produced nautical instruments and cartography, and finished mainly for the captains of the Medicean fleet, the with plaster. The Knights of St. Stephen. In 1606 the English Admiral, twenty-six sheets Sir Robert Dudley (1573-1649) entered into the displayed in this service of Ferdinando I (1549-1609), marking the room (twenty-four reinforcement of the program of nautical science at half-gores and two the Medicean Court. In 1646-1647, Dudley published polar caps) were in Florence an imposing treatise on the art of acquire basic mathematical principles for the perfect printed in the 20th century navigation, Dell’arcano del mare, dedicating it to management of military operations. As stated by from the original copper plates kept Ferdinando II (1610-1670). After Dudley’s death his Galileo (1564-1642) for the noblemen who attended at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. These important group of nautical instruments became his lessons in mathematics, a soldier should have a plates were prepared for the second edition (Paris part of the Medicean collection. basic knowledge of arithmetic, geometry, surveying, 1693) of Coronelli’s celestial globe. perspective, mechanics and military architecture. This new approach to war favoured a vogue for collecting scientific instruments at court that swept