Museum
"La Specola"
Mineraliter
With Mineraliter. Pietre mirabili tra Medici e Natura, curated by Fausto Barbagli and Vanni Moggi Cecchi, the Museum of Natural History of Florence proposes a fascinating itinerary that takes visitors through the wonders of the mineral kingdom.
A journey that starts from the origins of Renaissance collecting, with extraordinary examples of glittal art, to come to represent the wealth of the current mineralogical collections of the Museum, which combine amazing aesthetic value with exceptional scientific value.
In this perspective, there is an extraordinary selection of carved stones of Medicean origin including a large goblet in lapis lazuli created by Gasparo Miseroni in 1563; a large vessel in hyaline quartz, made from a single block of crystal; three goblets belonging to Lorenzo the Magnificent and a table plan in wood inlaid with semi-precious stones, made by Domenico del Tasso in 1593, for the cabinet of Ferdinand I.
These masterpieces, the result of the work of renowned artists and anonymous stonemasons, introduce and stand beside surprising natural minerals, also a result of passionate collecting.
Among these, they stand out for their extraordinary beauty, a splendid fluorite, a huge desert rose and the fascinating specimens of deep pink beryl, morganite variety, attributable to the collection of Alberto Ponis, bought by the museum at the end of the 1980s.
Space is also dedicated to the regional mineralogy, with beautiful Sicilian specimens of sulfur, and to the mineralogical curiosities with the "gogotte" in white sandstone.