Founded in 1917 by a group of Pistoia teachers, the Institute complied with the need to open a technical school in Pistoia. Originally, it was divided into three sections: physics-mathematics, land surveying, and accounting. From the first section has derived the Liceo Scientifico "A. di Savoia" ["A. di Savoia" Scientific Secondary School], from the second the Istituto Tecnico per Geometri "E. Fermi" ["E. Fermi" Technical Institute for Surveyors], and from the third the present-day Istituto Tecnico Commerciale "F. Pacini".

Today the Institute possesses educational instruments of significant historical and scientific value, most of them of Italian manufacture, dating from the years 1920-30, which formed part of the Physics Cabinet in the original Technical Institute. The collection includes other instruments as well, such as vintage typewriters, merchandise boxes, a herbarium and models of crystal lattices.