Interview with Filippo Camerota, Museum Galileo’s director
By Christine Williams
CET Student Correspondent & intern at Flo n' the Go in Florence, Italy
History of Art and Italian Studies, CET Fall 2010
As American students in Italy, we are, of course, shepherded along with our classmates and countless other tour groups through crowded museums on a fairly regular basis. As awe-inspiring, beautiful, and historically fascinating as the pieces are and as much as I love art, it’s hard not to think it feels like a forced march after a while. The Museo Galileo, however, is a rare environment that has been redesigned to be relaxed yet informative at the same time. We were lucky enough to be able to meet and interview Professor Filippo Camerota, the museum’s Vice Director and Collection Manager.
What brought you to the Museo Galileo?
I have been vice-director since 2003. Before that, I taught history of architecture at the University of Florence. I began to collaborate with Museo Galileo in 1984, at that time known as the Institute and Museum of the History of Science. Before I was on the staff, I helped them organize workshops and exhibitions. In 2001, there was a workshop on Renaissance Perspective and later that year we put together “Nel segno di Masaccio”, in which we displayed reconstructions of perspective machines. Once the vice-director of Museo Galileo resigned, the director asked me to fill that position, because of our previous interactions. It is very different from my previous job as a professor, but my background in the history of art and architecture makes me a historian, which also allows me to be a historian of science. This institution is very interested in art and science and believes the two are tightly knit.
What was the origin of the Museo Galileo?
The artifacts and instruments in the museum were originally the collection of the Medici family. The collection grew in the Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi, and the Pitti Palace. It became a public collection at the end of the 18th century, when the Medici Dukes lost power and the country was unified. In 1929, the government organized an exhibition of the collection and realized the need for a National Institute of the History of Science. Just last June, after two years of restoration, we reopened the museum as the Museo Galileo.
Why the change in name?
The new name gives homage to Galileo. We have many of his surviving instruments and much or our exhibit is dedicated to the scientist. We are permanently celebrating his discoveries by giving him a real institution. There were also marketing reasons involved. The shorter name is easier to remember. Tourists had already nicknamed the museum “The museum of Galileo,” so it was a natural change.
What do you think is the most important aspect of the museum?
There are so many different unique pieces. The armillary sphere is the largest one of its kind. The only other is in Spain. The Duke gave the model of his sphere as a gift to the Spanish Monarchs. There are also Galileo’s instruments; the telescopes, the compasses, and the glass instruments which are all very unique and important. The glass instruments are special because they tell the story of Galileo as well as the story of glass craftsmanship of Florence.
What is one thing visitors should remember about your museum?
Visitors should remember that this collection was not made by scholars. It is a historical collection, created by the Medici family. It is a part of the history of Florence, which is not only a center of art, but also a capital of science. There was a tradition of science here begun before Galileo and continued after him. Visitors forget the science part of Florence, but recently there has been a movement to see science and art as interconnected.
How does the museum communicate with its visitors?
Our approach to communication relies on multimedia. Science is very difficult to explain without many pages of technical explanation, and instruments don’t talk. Images help. We published an entire multimedia catalogue on this collection, so that visitors without a background in science can understand. They developed multimedia displays because more and more museums are focusing on education rather that the objects. By next spring we want to have an interactive museum where visitors can touch the models. There will be an Astronomy room where you can use a telescope and see the beams of light that make it work. There will be a Mechanics room that focuses on clocks and a sundial room. The sundial outside the front door of Museo Galileo is already a part of the interactive museum. We no longer learn how to use a sundial in school because it is not a part of our daily life, but they are still important to understand.
Would you tell us about the library?
The library is very important because we are not just a museum, we are a research institute. When the instruments were created, the inventor wrote a book to explain his calculations as well as the use of the instrument. The books are necessary, because you cannot use the book without the instrument or the instrument without the book. You need both. The library is open to everybody and you can read here in our library or on our website. When I was an architecture student, I used this library since it has books on architecture as well as on science. When the collection left the hands of the Medici, the Uffizi received the instruments for the mechanics room and the National Library got the manuscripts. The Museo Galileo wanted to reunite them.
In step with that merging of art and science, a matter of cardinal importance to the Museo Galileo is that of communication. After all, how is one to learn if there is no avenue to relay the information? This is one of the main things that sets the Museo Galileo apart. It is a collection of rare and amazing scientific artifacts, but it is also an active place of learning. One cannot help but want to discover more.
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