Museo di Storia Naturale dell'Accademia dei Fisiocritici

The Natural History Museum of the Accademia dei Fisiocritici occupies the former Camaldolese monastery of Santa Mustiola in Siena. Its collections span geology, zoology, anatomy and botany, arranged around a central courtyard where a fifteen-metre fin whale skeleton is displayed.

Why it matters

The museum is part of an academy founded in 1691 by Pirro Maria Gabbrielli, a professor of theoretical medicine and botany at the University of Siena. The institution’s historic collections bring together scientific specimens, instruments and documents accumulated over generations.

What to notice

In zoology, the nineteenth-century displays include around 3,000 birds and nearly 700 mammals. The fin whale skeleton, recovered near Piombino, is mounted in the courtyard. The anatomy section preserves the legacy of Paolo Mascagni, whose detailed work on the lymphatic system is represented by anatomical preparations, papers and plates from his life-size atlas. Elsewhere, the collections include rocks, minerals and fossils, terracotta mushroom models by Francesco Valenti-Serini, and Etruscan cinerary urns from Asciano and the Val d’Orcia displayed in a reconstructed tomb chamber.

Context and history

The academy’s museum combines natural-history collections with evidence of Siena’s scientific culture. Its four principal sections reflect the institution’s broad approach to the study of nature, while its historic setting in Santa Mustiola links the collections to a long tradition of scholarship in the city.