The Astronomy Museum at the University of Bologna

by Paolo Brenni

During the last decade several Italian scientific collections have been rediscovered, studied and catalogued. Bologna University, which has done pioneering work in this field, has a series of beautiful scientific museums. The most important collections of ancient scientific instruments of this university are displayed in the Physics Department and in the old astronomical observatory. The story and the collection of the latter are illustrated in a recently published volume: Enrica Baiada, Fabrizio Bònoli, Alessandro Braccesi, Museo della Specola, Bologna, Bologna University Press, 1995, ISBN 88-7794-073-5, 204 pp., ill., Lit. 40.000. This bilingual catalogue (Italian and English) is divided into three parts, which are introduced by a foreword by F.Roversi-Monaco and a preface by Gerard L'E. Turner. The first part retraces the evolution of astronomy in Bologna from the 11th to the early 18th century as well as the history of the local specola astronomica. The second one is a scientific catalogue of the astronomical instruments of the specola. The last part contains the bibliography of the instruments as well as the indexes of instruments and names.

The teaching of astronomy in Bologna began as early as the end of the 13th century. Between 1496 and 1500 Copernicus was in Bologna, where he also studied astronomy and made several observations. But a central figure in the local astronomical activities was Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli (1658-1730), who built a private scientific collection as well as his own observatory. Marsigli played a major role in realization of the specola of Palazzo Poggi, which was completed in 1726. During the 18th century the observatory was equipped with many new instruments. Some of them were acquired from the best English makers. From the end of the century meteorological observations were regularly made. In the 19th century the observatory continued its activities, under the direction of several distinguished Italian astronomers.

The first section of the volume is very well documented and it is enriched with a series of interesting illustrations. Not only does it contribute to cast new light on an important chapter of the history of Italian astronomy, but it sets the collection of instrument in an articulated historical context. The restoration of the meridian room and the instruments of the specola began in 1979. During the 1980s more instruments were restored and a couple of other rooms of the observatory were open to the public. Today the astronomical museum of Bologna is one of the most interesting in Italy. Not only its collection of instruments is particularly rich and interesting, but also most of them are in their original setting. The current display retraces the evolution of the observatory from the beginning of the 18th century up to the mid-19th century. The catalogue of the instruments lists about one hundred items. They are divided following their typology: astrolabes, gnomons and sundials, pendulum clocks, movable quadrants, mural instruments, transit and meridian circles, telescopes, armillary spheres, globes, geographical and celestial maps, and mathematical, meteorological, topographic and nautical instruments. Every section of the listing is preceeded by a short historical introduction. The entries are clear and well organized. The "identity card" of the instruments (with name, place, date, maker, materials and dimensions) is followed by a technical description and informations concerning its history, use and maker. A bibliography is given for every piece of apparatus. Many outstanding instruments are described. Among them we will mention a Flemish astrolabe by Arsenius, an English pendulum clock by Quare, several important quadrant (Sisson, Lusverg, Mégnié), a few German instruments by Reichenbach,Utzschneider und Liebherr, telescopes and lenses made by Campani, globes of Blaeuw, Senex, and various apparatus made by the best makers of their time (Lenoir, Ramsdem, Bion, Amici, Steinheil, etc.) The catalogue is well done, the descriptions are clear and precise and the bibliography is accurate. Every instrument is illustrated by one or more photographs. Unfortunately, in many cases we would have liked to see a larger picture of the apparatus: because of their small size, it is not always possible to fully appreciate the technical details and the particularities of the apparatus. However, this volume can be considered a very good example of scientific catalogue. In fact in the last decade many catalogues of various Italian scientific collections were published by universities, museums, schools, and different scientific institutions. They all contribute to illustrate the very rich scientific-historical national patrimony, but too often they did not correspond to modern and scientific catalogation standards. In several cases the transcriptions of names were not accurate, the descriptions of the artifacts were far from satisfactory, and the bibliographies were old fashioned and insufficient. Finally, they only illustrated a series of instruments, without giving the necessary technical and historical background, which is essential for researchers. The book produced by Baiada, Bònoli and Braccesi does not repeat these mistakes and it can be considered one of the best works of its kind published in Italy in recent years. It will be a useful and precious tool for historians of science and scientific instruments. Furthermore the bilingual edition (which today seems to me absolutely necessary for this kind of publications!) will surely contribute to a large diffusion of this work outside Italy.

Address: Paolo Brenni, CNR, Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Piazza dei Giudici 1, 50100 Firenze.