Museo della Strumentazione Storica del Liceo Galvani - Bologna

Organised recently in an enormous room in the oldest wing of the palazzo built by the Jesuits next to the church of Santa Lucia, which now houses the Galvani Secondary School, the museum showcases instruments and materials from the historic Cabinet of Physics and Natural Sciences of the Regio Liceo Galvani, established in 1860. The various sections of the museum display objects from the 18th century through the contemporary era. There are rare instruments such as a small 18th-century planetarium and an armillary sphere that reproduces Ptolemy’s model of the celestial orb. The galvanometers and electrostatic generators still work (the Wimshurst and Holtz models, from the 19th century, are noteworthy). There is also extensive testimony of Galvani’s scientific experiments. A classroom from the Regio Liceo has been reconstructed in the old lobby, with the wooden desks of the pupils and teacher, a blackboard, wardrobes and wall maps. The natural sciences are represented in particular by the herbarium with dried plants that were part of Antonio Federico Polonio’s collection. There is also a cabinet devoted to photography, displaying historic photographs and two photographic viewers, one of which quite exceptional, containing 60 slides of the Great War, and an impressive series of glass photographic plates. The display cases along the wall contain stuffed animals, minerals, shells and insects. A human skeleton and one from a primate, used to teach science, have also been preserved.