Geological collections
The collection of rocks amounts to around 10,000 samples. The lithic products are organized by geographical region and come mainly from Tuscany, but also from other regions of Italy and the world.
Many specimens came from the Italian Agricultural, Industrial and Artistic Exhibition, organized in 1861 in Florence. Many rocks used in architecture are also preserved in the museum, such as some polished specimens of Apuan marble. There is also a rare rock type in the collections: the orbicular diorite of Corsica (corsite).
Other samples come from Palestine, Turkey, Greece, Libya, the Sinai region and the eastern side of the Adriatic Sea, just to mention a few of the places of origin outside Italy.
Several rocks are now preserved together with minerals, in the Mineralogy and Lithology collections.
Heads of collections Stefano Dominici | Andrea Savorelli
Read more on the geological collections (English text at the bottom of the pages)
Cioppi, E., Dominici, S., The rock collection, in: Monechi, S. and Rook, L. (eds), 2010, The Museum of Natural History of the University of Florence: The geological and paleontological collections, Firenze University Press (pp. 285-295).
Last update
05.02.2024