The Physics Cabinet of the Istituto Tecnico Toscano

Paolo Brenni

This paper traces the history of the Istituto Tecnico Toscano (Tuscan Technical Institute),1 which was founded in the mid-nineteenth century. But for a better understanding the evolution of scientific and technical education in and therefore of the genesis of the Istituto, it is nec- essary to go back to the last quarter of the eighteenth century and briefly to trace some of the events concerning the Regio Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale (Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History).2

The Regio Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale

The Museo was founded in 1775 by the grand duke Peter Leopold of Hapsburg-Lorraine (1747–1792) and placed under the direction of the physiologist and natural philosopher Felice Fontana (1730–1805), while the naturalist and chemist Giovanni Fabbroni (1752–1822) was appointed deputy director. Peter Leopold wanted to revamp the Medici tradition and by founding the Museo he clearly showed his desire to patronize not only sciences but also the applied arts, as far as these could be fruitful for pub- lic use. Science and its applications had to be instrumental for improving the education and wellbeing of the subjects of the grand-duchy. Moreover this institution and its collection would have been a powerful vehicle of propaganda for the image of the Lorraine dynasty and for the cultural politics of the grand duke. The Museo was located in Palazzo Torreggiani (or Torrigiani), near the residence of Palazzo Pitti (Fig. 1). Installed there were the collection of physical and chemical apparatus, an impressive collection of rocks and minerals, and various zoological specimens, as well as a workshop for the

1 Often referred to also as “Istituto Tecnico di Firenze”. 2 For a detailed and a well documented history of this museum see: Simone Contardi, La casa di Salomone a Firenze: L’imperiale e reale museo di fisica e storia naturale (1775–1801), Firenze, 2002; Contardi, “The museum of physics and natural history” in Filippo Camerota (ed.), Displaying Scientific Instruments: From the Medici Wardrobe to the , Firenze, 2012, pp. 19–35. I would like to thank Simone Contardi for the fruitful discussions concerning the role of the Museo in the 19th century. 216 paolo brenni

Fig. 1. The Regio Museo di Fisica e di Storia Naturale and the botanical garden in the late eighteenth century in an engraving by Aniello Lamberti (Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, N.A. f. 6, pl. 111). production of anatomical waxes. The Museo included also a rich botani- cal garden, where plants were classified following the Linnaean system. In 1780, in the tower of the Palazzo Torreggiani, the installation of an astro- nomical observatory (the Specola) was commenced. However, in spite of the acquisition of several excellent English instruments, its realisation and functioning were problematic, not only for technical reasons related to its unfavourable location and the lack of a permanently appointed astrono- mer, but also because of disagreements and differences between Fontana and Fabbroni. The Museo was regularly open to the public, while access to the cabi- net of physics was reserved to chosen learned people. Fontana acquired many new instruments and arranged the repair of the old ones.3 If the simpler models and machines for illustrating Galilean and Newtonian physics were made by local artisans, who often copied the illustrations of ’s Gravesande’s and Nollet’s treatises, the most sophisticated optical, astronomical or electrical instruments had often to be acquired abroad

3 Between 1775 and 1807 the number of philosophical instruments preserved in the collection doubled.