The Galilean Collection of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence

Area:	Library
Start:	1 June 2009
End:	31 October 2009
Description:	The Galilean collection, housed at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence (BNCF), helps to trace his private life and scientific activities through documents (mainly manuscripts) like autographical manuscripts by Galileo, correspondence by him and some of his disciples, diaries from the Accademia del Cimento and many other writings, notes and archival documents, making it one of the richest and most interesting collections of the history of science between 17th and 18th centuries in the world. The main core of the collection was acquired in 1818 by Grand Duke Ferdinando III of Lorraine and grew when documents coming from libraries, archives and private collections were later added. The original core was implemented in 20th century and gathered with many other documents (Gal. 308-347) thanks to the work of Antonio Favaro. In 1996 the nearly 13,000 documents began to be catalogued and digitized. These operations were carried out in 2001, thanks to the BNCF, as part of several projects involving the Institute and Museum of the History of Science. Recently the more than 13,000 records describing the Galilean collection were loaded into the cumulative library data bank as well as in the Archive section and are now consultable via the library's online catalogue using traditional search methods. The digitized texts will also be available within the next few months.
Link:	biblioteca.imss.fi.it

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