May 7, 1925, marked the beginning of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science, now the Museo Galileo. A varied programme of events has been curated to celebrate the centenary, which commenced on April 15 in Palazzo Vecchio’s Salone dei Cinquecento with a lecture by renowned art historian Martin Kemp and a reading of Galilean texts by Sergio Rubini. Exhibitions, performances, talks and publications are planned until 2027, including the opening of the new GalileoLab in the Santa Maria Novella complex.
Under the direction of Andrea Corsini, the Institute and Museum of the History of Science of the Royal University of Florence was the first of its kind in Italy, located in via degli Alfani 33. One of its noteworthy initiatives was the National Exhibition of the History of Science in 1929, inaugurated by King Vittorio Emanuele III, during which 10,000 instruments, machines, books, manuscripts, sculptures, paintings and other documents relating to the history of Italian science and technology were exhibited.
The museum was then moved to Palazzo Castellani in 1930, where it remains today, and is home to the only original Galileo telescopes that have been handed down, making it of international importance. 2025 also marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the founder, Andrea Corsini (Florence, 1875), and the 250th anniversary of the foundation of the Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History, created in 1775 by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, the origin of the collections preserved in the Museo Galileo.
War and the related limited resources affected Corsini’s direction (1925-61), yet the institute still managed to consolidate its position as a reference point for historical and scientific studies. Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli, director from 1961 to 1981, brought new impetus into the institute’s activities and worked brilliantly to overcome the severe blow inflicted by the flood of 1966, also thanks to the international solidarity that she succeeded in attracting. More recent decades have seen the direction of Paolo Galluzzi (1982-2021), scientific direction by Marco Ciardi (July-December 2021) and, currently, executive direction by Roberto Ferrari and scientific director Filippo Camerota (both since 2021).
An exhibition titled One Hundred Years of the History of Science in Florence will be on show from June 20 to October 19, sharing rare and valuable editions, manuscripts and scientific documents collected and preserved in the library of the Galileo Museum. Of note also is Ten Stories for a Museum that will be published by Edizioni Museo Galileo, featuring texts by ten nationally renowned writers, inspired by the museum’s collections: Valerio Aiolli, Giuliana Altamura, Teresa Ciabatti, Ilaria Gaspari, Helena Janeczek, Walter Siti, Filippo Tuena, Chiara Valerio, Giorgio van Straten and Sandro Veronesi.
International conferences form the programme with Scaling the Cosmos: Instruments and Images of the Universe to be held from November 19 to 21 in collaboration with the CNRS-Centre André Chastel, aiming to develop a visual history of the universe by analyzing how images and instruments have shaped the understanding of celestial phenomena in the modern age. The Winter School of the History of Science takes place from November 24 to 28, organized in collaboration with the Italian Society for the History of Science, a high-level training activity aimed at transferring to the younger generations knowledge, tools and methods for historical research and for the conservation and enhancement of the museum and documentary.
Today, the museum features over 1,000 instruments on permanent display and a book heritage of over 250,000, with numerous educational activities operated by the museum making it a stalwart for science in the city, reaching 1,500 annual events in 2024 alone.
The celebrations also continue beyond this year with the opening of the GalileoLab in the Santa Maria Novella Complex, which will host events curated by the museum with the intention of offering residents, schools, national and international tourism alternative paths to knowledge. Set to open in 2027, the space will host events intended to recreate the balance between art and science that is part of Italy’s cultural tradition.
