Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Florence

The heart of the collection centers on the natural, physical and mathematical sciences which so interested the Medici and Lorena Grand Dukes. It was thanks to Abbot Felice Fontana that the existing Museum of Physical and Natural sciences at the Palazzo Pitti was strengthened. One part of the museum is dedicated solely to the Medici collections, this includes the quadrants, astrolabes, sun dials, compasses and calipers and all the works of art which were created by the great craftsmen of Tuscany and Europe. One of the other wings is dedicated to mechanical, electrostatic and pneumatic instruments which were prevalent in the Lorena period.