Video summary
The Academy of Fisiocritics was established in 1691 by Professor Pirro Maria Gabrielli at the University of Siena as a response to the sweeping scientific revolution occurring across Europe. Its founders gathered colleagues and students with a shared desire to seek truth through empirical experimentation rather than relying on tradition or false beliefs. To define their unique identity, they coined the term "Fisiocritici," derived from Greek words meaning scholars of nature, effectively acting as early naturalists who met regularly to share experimental results both locally and internationally. Their motto, taken from Lucretius, emphasized that truth is the means to defeat falsehoods, a philosophy symbolized by their emblematic touchstone used historically to distinguish real gold and silver from imitations or alloys containing low levels of noble metals.
The institution faced significant challenges regarding its physical location before finding stability in a former Camaldolese monastery known as the Monastery of the Rose. Initially meeting at Santa Maria della Scala, the group later moved to Via della Sapienza, only for that site to be severely damaged by an earthquake in 1798, leaving them without a home until the Grand Dukes of Tuscany donated the empty monastery building after the dissolution of the religious order and confiscation of its assets. Today, the museum housed within this historic space is organized into four main sections: the ground floor features geopaleontological exhibits including fossils, rocks, and minerals; the first floor contains a zoological collection alongside an anatomical section dedicated to human anatomy featuring original preparations by Paolo Mascagni and his extensive book collections. Notably, these anatomical works include precious plates that allowed Mascagni to be the first to describe the lymphatic system in humans in detail, while a botanical section is situated between the ground floor and basement levels.
Beyond its core scientific sections, the museum preserves a diverse array of memorabilia and specialized collections that highlight its rich history. Among these items are artifacts such as Napoleon's half-coconut from his exile on Elba, gloves donated by the King of Naples to a Sicilian nobleman, and various Siena Earths known for their medicinal properties used in thermal water studies dating back to 1862 when the academy hosted an Italian congress. The collection also includes fragments of the Lucignano meteorite that fell near Siena in 1794, which provided crucial evidence supporting Ambrosio Soldani's hypothesis regarding the extraterrestrial origin of meteors. Furthermore, archaeological finds from a former rich collection sold to the municipality and astronomical instruments enrich the museum, reflecting an institution that has always been open to sharing knowledge with all citizens through public experiments since its inception in 1697.
In modern times, the Academy continues to fulfill its dual mission of research dissemination and active scientific inquiry, maintaining relevance despite Siena's inland location by hosting one of Italy's richest collections of cetaceans. Since the 1970s recovery of a fin whale that beached in Piombino, the academy has collaborated with local authorities to recover deceased marine life such as whales and sea turtles from Tuscany's beaches, transforming their skeletons into museum exhibits available for national and international scientific analysis including genetic studies. The institution also embraces participatory science by launching data collection projects since 2021 that rely on observations from citizens across the region, while offering extensive educational programs for schools and non-school groups. For those interested in engaging with these activities, booking workshops or attending conferences, visitors are encouraged to consult the museum's website and social media channels for up-to-date information on temporary exhibitions and upcoming events.
Read the full video transcript
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While enrollment
for courses at our university is underway, in
these August installments of
the university and city weekly magazine
, [music] we
show you some of the many centers
of excellence at the University of Siena.
The Academy of the Fisiocritics was founded in
1691
by Pirro Maria
Gabrielli, a professor at the University of
Siena who gathered a group of colleagues
and students to create an Academy of
Sciences in the wake of the
scientific revolution sweeping
Europe at the time. They
essentially had the desire, the will to
experiment, to arrive at the truth
of natural phenomena through the
empirical method, through
experimentation, and they decided to meet
periodically to share the
results of their
scientific experiments and disseminate them to the rest
of the local scientific community
and even outside of Siena and
Italy.
they decided to create this name that did not
exist before, from the fusion of two
Greek words, fisura
and
basically they wanted to define themselves as scholars
of nature, so they coined the
term physiocritics. Today we might say
naturalists, but at that time
this term did not exist.
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The touchstone symbolizes
their will to seek the
truth by refuting false beliefs. The
touchstone was and still is
used to distinguish real gold and
silver from imitations
or from, say, objects made of
metal with alloys with a low content of
noble metals. So, for
this very reason, precisely because the
touchstone can distinguish between what
is false and what is true, they
used this together with a motto
taken from the Derero nature of the title
Lucretius dear Veriscodit vince falsa.
So that through the truth we
can defeat false things.
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At first the Physiocritics met
for a while in
the current Santa Maria della Scala, but
after a short time they moved to Via
della Sapienza and unfortunately this site
was heavily damaged by the
earthquake of 1798, so they remained for
a period of several years, let's say,
orphaned of a place in which to meet, until
the Grand Dukes of Tuscany
donated this building which had been
a Camaldolese monastery, the Monastery
of the Rose which had been empty for some years
when the religious order had been
dissolved and the monks had been forced
to abandon and all their assets,
including the building, had been
confiscated.
Today the museum is divided into four
main sections. On the ground floor we find
the geopaleontological section with
fossils, rocks and minerals.
And then on the first floor we find the
zoological collection with the animals,
where we are now, and an
anatomical section dedicated to human anatomy
with original anatomical preparations by
Paolo Mascagni and his book collection and
the plates of the universal anatomy, a
very precious version of the
universal anatomy, precisely, his
anatomical plates and then we also have the
anatomical preparations through which Paolo
Mascagni managed for the first
time to describe in detail the
lymphatic system in humans. Then we
also have a botanical section which is,
let's say, between the ground floor and the
basement and these are the
main ones. Then in reality there are
a whole series of other collections that,
let's say, enrich the museum. So
we have a small astronomical section,
we also have some archaeological finds
which are what remains of a rich
archaeological collection that the
Physiocritics had
until the beginning of the 20th century and which
was then sold to the Municipality of Siena. In
1862 they hosted the tenth congress of
Italian licentiates and then
published for the occasion a book
on the natural history of Siena and its
territory and dedicated a large space in
this book to hydrology, to the
study of waters, but also to
the medicinal and curative properties
of thermal waters and so on.
At that point they decided to create a collection of
these waters and had these
cantons sent to them which they then bottled and this one,
in short, has a collection even in a
single room.
Among the memorabilia is a half coconut that
belonged to Napoleon and was given to him
during his exile on Elba as a
hunting glass. We have a pair of gloves, eh
in marine bso, mh donated by the king of Naples
to a Sicilian nobleman and then arrived
after eh various vicissitudes here at the
fisiocritici and we have a collection of
Bolari earths, therefore the so-called
Siena Earths. We have a fragment of the
Siena meteorite, a fragment
of this meteorite shower that fell
in Siena at Lucignano d'Aso in 1794,
thanks to which the baptist Ambrosio Soldani
formulated, let's say for the first time,
the hypothesis of the extraterrestrial origin
of meteorites. Over
time,
many very important
scientists, both Italian and European, from
other European countries have been part of this academy, and the physiocritics
have also played an important role
through the publication of the proceedings of
the Siena Academy of Sciences. It has
always been an institution very
open to the sharing of
scientific knowledge, to dissemination starting
from 7, when even the Physiocritics
carried out experiments open to
all citizens. Today,
the Academy continues to pursue
both of these missions: that of
dissemination, that is, the diffusion of
knowledge, through a whole series of
activities, including conferences,
book presentations,
public events of all kinds,
scientific meetings and more, but also its
research function. And just think that
in Siena, for example, despite not
being on the sea, we have one of the
richest collections of cetaceans in Italy.
This is because already in the
1970s, when
the recovery of this
specimen of fin whale that
had beached in Piombino was attempted and ultimately carried out, and since
then, through an
ongoing collaboration with the University of Siena,
the Academy has participated in the recovery of
cetaceans and sea turtles that die
on the beaches of Tuscany. We
also manage to obtain skeletons that are then turned into
museum exhibits and made
available to the
national and international scientific community
for, for example,
biometric measurements or even
bone tissue samples to be used
for genetic and molecular analyses.
Other research is carried out in
collaboration with citizens
through what is called
participatory science or citizen science.
Starting in 2021, the museum has launched
several data collection projects,
gathering naturalistic observations
that rely on the
collaboration of all citizens.
We also have, through the museum
, a very rich educational offering
aimed at both schools of all
levels and non-
school groups, so the offering is
truly rich and it is very difficult
to summarise it in a few words. For this reason, I
invite anyone interested to follow us
on social media and on our website,
where you can find all the
information you need to book
educational tours, workshops, and other activities, as well as stay
up-to-date on
temporary exhibitions, conferences, and any other
activity promoted or
hosted within our museum.
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