On Display at La Specola Museum

TfK 1-2010 ombrukket_TfK 1-2-2007 02.03.10 15.55 Side 38 “Exotism” on display at La Specola Museum Gianna Innocenti Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze [email protected] Keywords Abstract Natural History In Florence, “La Specola” Museum was first opened to the public in 1775, by order of the Museums, enlightened Grand Duke Peter Leopold of Lorraine who wished to put together all the La Specola, “natural curiosities” from his collections, as well as from the Medici ones, in the context natural curiosities of an enlightened project of popular education. The zoological collections consisted of many Italian and foreign specimens, and among them on display were several amazing animals, peculiar for their provenance, rarity or dimension that gave rise to the social imagination of the Museum visitors. This paper provides a selection of the unusual animals on display and gives an account of their arrival at La Specola Museum as many specimens have a “story” to tell the visitor. Introduction of February, 1775 (Barbagli 2009:58; The Florentine Museum “La Specola” was Contardi 2009:15). In the subsequent founded in 1771 as the Royal Imperial years, the Museum became a well known Museum of Physics and Natural History, place for the Florentine people, so much so by order of the Grand Duke Peter Leopold that it was simply and popularly known as of Lorraine. It was his aim to reunite all the “La Specola”. The name “Specola” was for material related to natural history, i.e. “nat- the astronomical observatory located in its ural curiosities”, scientific artefacts and tower, which was built in 1789 (Miniati instruments, from the Medici collections, 1984:212), and soon developed into a separating them from the art collections town institution. It was visited not only by held in the Uffizi and Pitti Palace, for the Florentines but also by country people, cultural enrichment of the town. In fact, who wished to see the amazing collection the museum was organized under the direc- of odd specimens housed in it, such as hor- tion of the chemist and physiologist Felice rific reptiles, colourful birds and huge Fontana, following the catalogue of materi- mammals (Corsini 1924:377; Azzaroli al compiled in 1763 by Giovanni Targioni Puccetti 1972:94). Importantly, La Specola Tozzetti. The museum was finally opened was the first strictly monographic scientific to the public of any social level on the 21st museum opened to the public, regardless of 38 Tidsskrift for kulturforskning. Volum 9, nr. 1 • 2010, s. 38-44 TfK 1-2010 ombrukket_TfK 1-2-2007 02.03.10 15.55 Side 39 their status. This was quite a change from therefore properly placed among the mam- other collections, such as the sixteenth and mals. seventeenth century Wunderkammern, In the mid-19th century, Italy was a whose displays of exotic objects and speci- newborn and developing nation and colo- mens were for the exclusive viewing of the nialism was at its dawn. During this time, nobility (Strocchi 2004:83–84). Indeed, the exhibits and collections mainly includ- Fontana and the subsequent directors of ed the creation of the Central Collection of the Museum prepared the museum with Italian Vertebrates, that contained the most self-education purposes, wishing to join up complete collection of the Italian speci- all the branches of the scientific knowledge mens, the exotic specimens were largely of the time in the field of the Natural included in this as well, due to the passion Sciences and aspirating to affirm a model of of remote and far chinoiserie engendered in organization able to answer to the dual museum visitors (Strocchi 2004:83; need of a rational reordering of the collec- Barbagli 2009:71–72; Martinelli et al. tions and an enlightened demonstration of 2009:47). Indeed, during the latter half of the true and useful. The museum’s model the 19th century and particularly in the was characterized by its propensity of years following the unification of Italy, the showing all the specimens available, with natural history collections became an an emphasis towards displaying strange, instrument to affirm the authority of a rare and foreign materials, stressing their nation and represented the palpable sign of unusualness for their provenance, donor or the capacity to intellectually dominate peculiarity. remote places (Barbagli 2008:35). With regard to the zoological aspects of In the following sections of this article the collection, specimens were displayed in I provide an excursus on some examples of relation to their taxonomic classification, the zoological specimens displayed through with the intention of displaying many rep- the years, with an emphasis on “exotism” as resentatives of all groups in the animal it was meant at that time, i.e. intending kingdom, as followed the Enlightenment everything that arrives from distant coun- ideas and the diffusion of the systematic tries, or every specimen that has the quali- studies throughout biology (Cipriani ty of being alien or not native, or curious. 2006:100). One exception to this however, was the antique nucleus of the Medici’s “studiolo” collection, which was abundant Specimens from the Medici’s collection in precious, filled with singular and splen- There are still a few specimens from the did pieces (for the time). This collection Medici’s Wunderkammern collection on dis- was maintained largely intact, although the play at La Specola. These are specimens that sense of marvellous went to the rank of predate the Museum’s formal foundation. “infancy of ideas”, which the Enlighten sci- Among them, one of the most ancient speci- entists like Fontana felt they could “cen- mens, still on display in a Museum hall, is sure” (Lugli 1983:111), putting them in the skeleton of an Indian elephant (Fig. 1) their hierarchical and scientific category – that was kept alive and exhibited to the an example for all, the “unicorn horn” was Florentine people in the Loggia dei Lanzi, properly recognized to be the incisor tooth near Palazzo Vecchio in Florence until 1655, of a narwhal (Monodon monoceros) and was the year of its death (Agnelli et al. 2009:204). “Exotism” on display at La Specola Museum 39 TfK 1-2010 ombrukket_TfK 1-2-2007 02.03.10 15.55 Side 40 It has been studied in recent times by the In one of the first inventories of the collec- English scholar R. Avery, who provided us tion, compiled at the end of the eighteenth the following preliminary information. century by Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti for the Royal Galleries, the collections of Georg Everhard Rumpf (1627–1702) are mentioned and listed. These were pur- chased by the Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici. This collection was exhibited in the Museum and consisted of exotic specimens from the Indonesian island of Amboina. Among the specimens were rare and precious invertebrates, such as the mol- lusc shell of the Nautilus and the black coral Antipathes, which was listed among the marine plants (Innocenti & Cianfanelli 2009:135). In the catalogue compiled in 1792, several specimens of aegagropile and bezoar are reported (Fig. 2). Aegagropile are fur balls found in the rumen of deer or other ruminants, and bezoar are mineral concre- tions from the kidneys and bladders of her- bivores. In previous centuries these were used in ancient pharmacological remedies as a cure for fevers or against plagues. These pieces were kept not only for their rarity but also for their presumed hidden healing Fig. 1 – The skeleton of the Indian elephant powers, for examples as antidotes. However (Elephas maximus). Photo by Saulo Bambi. even though they were part of the old Medici’s collections, they were nevertheless The elephant, born in 1630, travelled all listed in the zoological register, thereby over Europe. It was sketched by Rembrandt properly recognizing their animal origin. in Holland in 1637, and was likely seen in The catalogue also reports a bezoar from life by Bernini in Rome. Following this it the gall bladder of the Palatine Elector arrived in Florence, where it expired in extracted the 9th of June 1716, a piece that November 1655. Following the orders of is unfortunately lost (Innocenti & Poggesi the Grand-duke that it be used for scientif- 2002:14–15). ic studies, it was dragged to the Boboli The hippopotamus, still displayed in a Gardens and was flayed, so that its skin Museum room, was originally part of the could be stuffed and mounted realistically, collections of the Museum of Natural and its skeleton re-assembled for additional Curiosities of the Uffizi Gallery, however investigation. Both items were initially dis- its complete history remains quite uncer- played in the Salone delle Pietre dure in the tain. It was probably donated to the Grand Pitti Palace. Duke Peter Leopold around the second half 40 Gianna Innocenti TfK 1-2010 ombrukket_TfK 1-2-2007 02.03.10 15.55 Side 41 Organised explorations of remote lands In 1860, the Royal Institute of Advanced Studies was established; the precursor of the current University. At this time the Museum was intended to serve a privileged place of education, with its collections organized in laboratories and the specimens placed at the service of research and teach- ing. From that time on, there was a large increase in the number of specimens housed in the museum. The largest portion of material was collected after the second Fig. 2 – A selection of bezoar and aegagropiles half of the nineteenth century, due to the with their original laberls. Photo by Saulo efforts of Adolfo Targioni Tozzetti (1823– Bambi. 1902) and Enrico Hillyer Giglioli (1845– 1909). Targioni Tozzetti greatly expanded of the 1700s and lived in the Boboli the invertebrate collection while Giglioli Gardens, but there are also accounts that it the vertebrate collection.

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