Sala Ulisse Aldrovandi

Sala Aldrovandi contains some of the samples of Aldrovandi’s personal collection. A network of contacts connecting his home in Bologna to the region of the Old and New world enabled him to create the museum, also referred to as” microcosm of nature”. Towards the end of his life Aldrovandi proudly declared that in his home he had collected 18000”varieties of natural things” and 7000 dried plants in 15 volumes .Among the most important exhibits of the museum were the 17 volumes with thousands of animals, plants, minerals, monsters. In 1617 the museum was set up in the Palazzo Pubblico (palazzo d’Accursio)where it remained until 1742,when it was moved to the rooms of the Institute of Sciences in the Palazzo Poggi. During the XIX century the collection was mostly dismantled, and was then partly reassembled here in 1907.