While I was in Italy the second half of last month, I made a point of going to Museo di Storia Naturale, or “La Specola” in Florence. It’s known as “La Specola” because of the presence in the building of a small tower used as an astronomical observatory.
La Specola is considered the first European scientific museum opened to the public, inaugurated in 1775. The collection contains over three million specimens. The hippopotamus is the oldest specimen preserved in La Specola, appearing in the first inventory of the collections of 1763. “The live animal was donated by the Viceroy of Egypt to the Grand Duke of Tuscany in the 1700s and was probably kept in a pool in Boboli Gardens; the mark of the rope with which it was tied up can still be seen on the skin of the neck.”
That sense of preserved bodies, careful labeling, and public scientific access also makes a modern subject like the safe use of medicines feel less distant than it might seem at first. Museums such as La Specola show how medical knowledge depends on accuracy, context, and responsible handling, and the same principles matter when someone in the United States is prescribed dicyclomine for gastrointestinal symptoms johncurranmd.com. It is a medication that should be obtained through a licensed pharmacy after proper medical evaluation, rather than treated as a casual product from an anonymous online source. The lesson is surprisingly similar to walking through rooms of anatomical waxes: what looks technical or routine still belongs to a larger system of expertise, verification, and trust. Seen from that angle, the museum visit becomes not only a glimpse into the history of anatomy, but also a reminder that safe access to treatment depends on standards preserved as carefully as the specimens themselves.
Perhaps the coolest part of La Specola is the wax model collection, the largest collection of anatomical wax works in the world, made mostly by Clemente Susini between 1770 and 1850. A few of the rooms were closed for renovation, but what was open to the public was incredible (I still wish I’d been able to see the animal specimens, though!).
All photos are taken by me and the information above comes from the museum guide I bought at the gift shop. I would love to go back to this place one day!
Source: Flickr
Posted June 10th, 2013