Tour audio Naturalia et mirabilia

One of the lesser-known but actually very widespread passions in the Casa Medici was that for scientific speculation, experimentation and more generally for technological innovations. Grand Duke Francis I was a first-rate alchemist, the first in Europe to reproduce Chinese majolica. Inherited the same talent his son Don Antonio who created an unprecedented alchemical forge in the Casino of San Marco. From astrology to astronomy it is a short step. In 1610 Cosimo II appointed Galileo Galilei "Primary mathematician of the University of Pisa and Philosopher of the Serenissimo Grand Duke". The scientist reciprocated the sovereign by dedicating to him the four newly discovered satellites of Jupiter. A generation later, in 1657, Leopold with his brother Ferdinand II founded the Accademia del Cimento, the first scientific society in Europe. The main objective of the academy was the development and diffusion of the Galilean experimental method, hence the motto "Provando e provando". Francesco Redi, Lorenzo Magalotti, who acted as Secretary, Vincenzo Viviani, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli and Carlo Renaldini continuously participated in the work of the academy. During the meetings, which were held at Palazzo Pitti, numerous experiments in thermometry, barometry and pneumatics were carried out thanks to the help of innovative instruments specifically designed. The Academy's activity then concluded in 1667 with the publication of the Saggi di Naturali Esperienze, in which the main results achieved were presented, including the measurement of the speed of sound. Finally, Cosimo III was a tireless collector of plant varieties and promoted the birth of the first Botanical Society in history. In those years, the curiosity of the court was mainly aimed at the so-called "aberrations of nature", oddities, the result of genetic anomalies, which became the favorite subjects of the painter Bartolomeo Bimbi.