The Englishman Herbert Percy Horne (1864-1916) bequeathed to the Italian State both his collection and the palazzo he had bought and restored in 1911. The Museum was opened to the public in 1921, in accordance with the desire of the English collector to re-create the atmosphere of a lordly Renaissance residence for visitors and scholars. The palazzo, remodelled near the end of the 15th century by Simone del Pollaiolo, known as Cronaca, has two facades with three orders and elements in rusticated stone. In it, the collection bequeathed by Horne, made up of paintings, sculptures, furniture, precious editions and a small group of scientific instruments, is displayed in a worthy setting.

The collection of scientific instruments consists of about forty small objects: quadrants, sundials, rules, compasses, squares and surgical instruments, most of them dating from Renaissance times. Some are made of precious materials such as ivory.