Starting from tomorrow, September 7, 2023, two new valuable scientific instruments are on public display at the Museo Galileo: a terrestrial globe by Cornelis De Jode and a paper astrolabe. Both of them have been recently acquired by the Italian Ministry of Culture on behalf of the Regional Director of Museums for Tuscany which, in its turn, has loaned them to the Museo Galileo on a permanent basis. Cornelis De Jode’s terrestrial globe is an extremely rare example of historical cartography, made in Antwerp in 1594; the paper astrolabe, dated 1668 and possibly made in northern France, is very rare as well
The two instruments have been presented this morning in the presence of Stefano Casciu, Regional Director of Museums for Tuscany, and Polissena Brandolini d’Adda, on behalf of the President of the Friends of Florence Foundation, whose generous contribution has made it possible to restore Cornelis De Jode’s terrestrial globe.
The two instruments are now on display in a dedicated showcase designed to show them off in their best light in a recently renovated room on the ground floor, alongside another item acquired by the Ministry of Culture in 2022: Le Bas Jr.’s Gregorian reflecting telescope (c. 1720). The instruments will subsequently become part of the regular tour of the Museo Galileo.
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