Museo Galileo

Since the re-opening on 11 June 2010 Museo Galileo is the name of the Institute and Museum of the History of Science ( IMSS, Italian: Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza ), which was founded in 1927 by the University of Florence. In the Articles of Association, the Institute is committed to the collection, cataloging and restoration of ancient tools and instruments of historical and scientific importance. The University of Florence lent the new institute valuable library resources and its collection of Medici - Lorraine's science instruments. Establishing time of the IMSS, many initiatives have been launched, which had the aim to preserve Italy's scientific heritage.

In 1923 established the Community " Gruppo per la Tutela del Patrimonio Scientifico " in Florence and with the help of the IMSS, the first exhibition on the history of science was organized in 1929.

The first exhibition halls of the IMSS, a few rooms on the first floor of the Palazzo Castellani, who had to be shared at this time also with other exhibitors were inaugurated in 1930 solemnly.

The first president of the IMSS was Piero Ginori Conti Senator. The original agreement of the museum were written by Andrea Corsini, who was director until his death. Maria Luisa Righini Bonelli, his successor, was the impetus for a restoration, the IMSS rebuilt over two decades into a modern museum and research center, which was used by both Italians and foreign scholars.

After the devastating flood of 1966, the exhibition was moved to the second floor of the palace, where the instruments that have been thanks to the collaboration of Italian and foreign specialists saved and restored, could be issued again.

In the 1980s, the IMSS began a program to develop, which, based not only brought a new concept of the exhibition to the current studies, but also a remarkable enlargement of the library and a growing investment in new information and communication technologies.

Main attention was paid to profitable use and revealing the sources for the study of the history of science, especially in consideration to people like Galileo Galilei and the Galilean school. In the last twenty years, the IMSS published semi- annual reviews of the History of Science ( Nuncius. Annali di Storia della Scienza ).