The library – in existence since the foundation of the Museum in 1930 – consists of a collection of modern books on the history of science that has since then been continually updated and the antique Medici-Lorraine Collections, previously housed in the Reale Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale in the Palazzo Torrigiani. In addition, the Museum inherited an important archive of documents pertaining to the history of science in Tuscany since the end of the 18th century. In 1966 the library was situated on the first floor of the Palazzo Castellani and was therefore spared the worst. However, some volumes which were on display together with other exhibits in glass cases on the ground floor suffered severe damage. Full documentation of the flood and its consequences, including the complex efforts required to save the exhibits, is conserved in the archives.
The library of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science, ca. 1948
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The present-day reading room
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I giorni della rovina e del coraggio, "Epoca", 27 November 1966
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"Rundschau am Sonntag", 18 December 1966
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Letter of Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli to Marie-Thérèse d'Alverny
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Letter of Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli to Joachim O. Fleckenstein
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Letter of Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli to Adalberto Pazzini
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Letter of Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli to Alessandro Faedo
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Letter of Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli to Carolyn Eisele
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Letter to Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli from Friedrich Klemm
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Letter to Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli from Peter O. Williams
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Letter to Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli from John A. Chaldecott
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Letter to Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli from Erna Lesky
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Letter to Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli from Melvin Kranzberg
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Coat of arms of the Accademia degli Infangati, January 1967
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"La Nazione", 21 February 1967
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"Dateline in science", 17 March 1967
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J. Judge, Florence rises from the flood, "National Geographic", July 1967
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Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli, L'alluvione di Firenze e il Museo di storia della scienza, offprint from "Coelum", 1967
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Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli, Museo di storia della scienza, offprint from "Antichità viva", 1967
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Catalogue of the first items to be restored, on display in the Loggia Rucellai
Vedi tuttoA room on the ground floor was dedicated to the Sienese anatomist Paolo Mascagni (1755-1815), who worked for a time at the Reale Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale in Florence. The exhibit was curated by the scholar Federico Allodi (1900-1967), who had himself donated many objects to the Museum – anatomical models, chalcographic plates, a portrait, and some books, including a copy of Mascagni’s Anatomia universale, printed in Florence in 1833. Fished out of the mud some days after the flood, this magnificent volume with its 150 engravings, some of them coloured by hand, was considered to be beyond repair. It finally underwent restoration in 2015, thanks to grants from the regional government of Tuscany and private donors. In the first phase of the cleaning process, the conservators removed no less than a kilo of sediment from the book’s pages.
The room dedicated to Paolo Mascagni, as it was before the flood, 1966
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Mascagni's Anatomia universale showing the severe damage caused by the flood
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Preparing the restoration of the volume, 2014
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Paolo Mascagni, Anatomia universale, Florence,V. Batelli e figli, 1833
Vedi tuttoThe room dedicated to Paolo Mascagni, as it was before the flood, 1966.
Mascagni's Anatomia universale showing the severe damage caused by the flood.
Preparing the restoration of the volume, 2014.
Paolo Mascagni, Anatomia universale, Florence, V. Batelli e figli, 1833 - Museo Galileo, Biblioteca, Rari GF 024.
The library of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science, ca. 1948.
The present-day reading room.
L'attuale sala di conservazione delle collezioni antiche.
I giorni della rovina e del coraggio, "Epoca", 27 November 1966 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
"Rundschau am Sonntag", 18 December 1966 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
Letter of Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli to Marie-Thérèse d'Alverny, Curator at the Manuscript Department of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 7 January 1967 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
Coat of arms of the Accademia degli Infangati, January 1967 - Museo Galileo, Biblioteca.
"La Nazione", 21 February 1967 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
"Dateline in science", 17 March 1967 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
J. Judge, Florence rises from the flood, "National Geographic", July 1967 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli, L'alluvione di Firenze e il Museo di storia della scienza, offprint from "Coelum", 1967 Museo Galileo, Biblioteca.
Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli, Museo di storia della scienza, offprint from "Antichità viva", 1967 - Museo Galileo, Biblioteca.
Catalogue of the first items to be restored, on display in the Loggia Rucellai, Florence, 1968 - Museo Galileo, Biblioteca.
Letter of Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli to Joachim O. Fleckenstein, Director of the Institut für Geschichte der Exakten Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, at the Deutsches Museum, 3 December 1966 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
Letter of Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli to Adalberto Pazzini, Director of the Istituto di Storia della Medicina, University of Rome, 6 December 1966 - Museo Galileo, Archivio .
Letter of Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli to Alessandro Faedo, Chancellor of the University of Pisa, 5 December 1966 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
Letter of Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli to Carolyn Eisele, Professor of Mathematics and History of Mathematics, Hunter College, New York, 3 December 1966 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
Letter to Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli from Friedrich Klemm, Director of the Deutsches Museum Library, 26 May 1967 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
Letter to Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli from Peter O. Williams, Secretary of the Trustees, Wellcome Trust, 6 June 1967 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
Letter to Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli from John A. Chaldecott, Secretary of the British Society for the History of Science, 24 July 1967 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
Letter to Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli from Erna Lesky, Director of the Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, University of Vienna, 20 December 1966 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
Letter to Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli from Melvin Kranzberg, Secretary of the Society for the History of Technology, 26 January 1967 - Museo Galileo, Archivio.
