One Hundred Years of the History of Science

• 5:00 p.m. Greetings

• 6:00 p.m. “Icons of Science”, lectio magistralis by Martin Kemp, Professor Emeritus, Oxford University.Prof. Kemp is a world-renowned art historian and an undisputed authority in the field of Leonardo studies. He has worked in particular on the relationship between art and science.

• 9:00 p.m. “Galileo’s Moons”. Well-known actor Sergio Rubini will read some texts by Galileo Galileiselected by the historian of science Massimo Bucciantini, accompanied by music performed by the Musici della Scala.

Participation in both events by invitation only, reservations required

• 6:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. Special evening opening of the Museo Galileo
On the occasion of the foundation of the Istituto di Storia delle Scienze, today Museo Galileo (7 May 1925).

In occasione della fondazione dell’Istituto di Storia delle Scienze, oggi Museo Galileo (7 maggio 1925).

• 9:00 p.m. Performance: Caterina, la madre di Leonardo
Premiere of the performance, a dialogue freely adapted from Carlo Vecce’s novel Il sorriso di Caterina by the Compagnia OLTRE. According to Prof. Vecce’s reconstruction, Caterina served as a wet nurse in the Castello d’Altafronte, today known as Palazzo Castellani and home to the Museo Galileo.

Free admission for museum ticket holders, reservations required

Rare editions of volumes as well as manuscripts and documents preserved in the Museo Galileo’s library and archives will tell the story of the research activities and dissemination of scientific culture carried out by the Istituto di Storia della Scienza during its 100 years of existence.

The interdisciplinary conference, organised in collaboration with the CNRS-Centre André Chastel, will invite to reflect on the idea of scaling—a concept that is declined in those of measurement and modelling applied to the understanding and representation of the cosmos—and its articulations over time, involving the history of the arts and sciences as well as astrophysics.

The Winter School, organised in collaboration with the Società Italiana di Storia della Scienza, aims to offer its participants a full immersion in the life of the Museo Galileo through lectures and workshops, with a focus on museum and library collections as well as on the research activities and the dissemination of historical-scientific culture of the Istituto di Storia della Scienza.

Details (Italian only)

The project involves ten well-known Italian writers who will write a story based on an object from the Museo Galileo’s collection. The authors are Valerio Aiolli, Giuliana Altamura, Teresa Ciabatti, Ilaria Gaspari, Helena Janeczek, Walter Siti, Filippo Tuena, Chiara Valerio, Giorgio Van Straten, Sandro Veronesi. The stories will be collected in a volume to be published in 2025 by the Edizioni Museo Galileo.

The digital library (Italian only) offers a virtual tour through the early stages (1925-1929) of the history that led from the Istituto di Storia delle Scienze to the Museo Galileo. Through textual, iconographic and multimedia documents, it bears witness to the crucial role of the University of Florence and the Museo di Storia della Scienza in the valorisation and preservation of a historical-scientific heritage of international significance.

The Corsini collection, which is kept in Museo Galileo’s archives, will be published online by 2025. The collection includes letters and postcards, private documents, a collection of newspaper and magazine cuttings with a historical-scientific theme, as well as extensive documentation on the activities carried out by Andrea Corsini, the first director of the Istituto (later Museo) di Storia della Scienza.