Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze – La Specola

The origins of the Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università di Firenze – La Specola go back to the Imperial and Royal Museum of Physics and Natural History, founded in Palazzo Torriggiani by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine in 1775, which brought together the “natural productions” that had previously been kept in the Uffizi. In 1807 the Liceo di Scienze Fisiche e Naturali was established within the museum, creating six chairs (astronomy, physics, chemistry, mineralogy and zoology, botany, and comparative anatomy). In 1984 the Università di Firenze decided to reunify the scientific collections and established the “Museo di Storia Naturale dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze”. The collection includes several Mesoamerican artifacts originating from the Medici collections, in particular two small zoomorphic stone heads and a circular obsidian mirror.