Digital Library ''Stanzino delle Matematiche''

Area:	Digital library
Start:	15 May 2008
Description:	On the occasion of the exhibition "The Medici and Science" (Florence, Museo degli Argenti, May 15, 2008 – January 11, 2009), a new thematic digital library regarding the Mathematics Room has been created. The digitized books, which are now preserved in different Florentine libraries, were part of the antique collection of scientific instruments of the Medici. From the end of the 16th to the first half of the 18th century these instruments were kept in the Uffizi Gallery where two spaces were specifically created to glorify the political and military power of the Medici, as well as their patronage of mathematical sciences. The "Terrazzo" (Terrace) at via dei Castellani was conceived as a "Cosmography Room", and frescoed with cartographic representations of the Medicean dominions. In turn, the "Mathematics Room", situated beside the Tribune, was set-up, according to the instructions of Filippo Pigafetta, as the "Room of Military Architecture". No less than five inventories of the Gallery, from 1638 to 1769, provide precise indication of the instruments preserved in these rooms and the books that illustrated operations and geometric principles. By the end of 18th century the collection of books was moved, together with the instruments, to the new Physics Museum in Palazzo Pitti, though perhaps at that time some books had already been assigned to other libraries.
Link:	fermi.imss.fi.it/rd/bd?lng=en&progetto=718

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