Введение Naturalia et mirabilia

Among the Medici’s most surprising passions was their devotion to science and the marvels of nature. It was not enough to rule over men and lands: the secrets of the world had to be explored. Thus, alongside crowns and arms, the Florentine court gathered experiments, instruments, and curiosities that still today reveal an unexpected face of the dynasty.

At the center of the hall stands the armillary sphere reconstructed after the design of Egnazio Danti, cosmographer of Cosimo I: a geocentric universe enclosed in metallic circles, symbol of the order of creation. Yet it was in Florence, only a few years later, that Galileo placed the sun at the center of the cosmos, dedicating to young Cosimo II the satellites of Jupiter that are still known as the “Medicean moons.” A gesture that bound the dynasty forever to the stars, though it cost the scientist the condemnation of the Inquisition, recalled here by a papal brief of Urban VIII.

Curiosity did not stop at the heavens. In the display cases one finds the volumes of the Accademia del Cimento, founded in 1657 by Leopoldo and Ferdinando II: the first scientific society in Europe, whose motto “Provando e riprovando” inaugurated the age of the experimental method. Here worked figures such as Francesco Redi and Vincenzo Viviani, who at Palazzo Pitti conducted experiments in thermometry and barometry, even managing to measure the speed of sound.

And alongside science, wonder was cultivated. A rare two-bodied lamb, a historic specimen of taxidermy, recalls the taste for the so-called “aberrations of nature” that filled the Medici collections and which Bartolomeo Bimbi’s art transformed into painting. Watching over all, the solemn bust of Ferdinando I sculpted by Foggini stands as testimony to a sovereign who was not only a prince, but also a patron of science and knowledge.