History of the museum

 

The 1700s: the beginning

The earliest roots of the Zoological Museum extend back to the collection of natural curiosities that belonged to Antonio Vallisneri senior (1661-1730). In 1734, after his father’s death, his son, Antonio Vallisneri junior, donated the collection to the University of Padova. Not many of the objects exhibited today can be safely traced, according to the old catalogues, to have belonged to Vallisneri Senior, except for the carved Nautilus, the rhinoceros horn, the narwhal’s tusk and the two ostrich eggs.

Antonio Vallisneri  junior was the first to teach Natural History in the University of Padova and directed the Vallisneri Museum for more than forty years. He expanded it with noteworthy zoological finds: several animals from the province of Quito, Ecuador; a giant leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), the Typus later described by Linnaeus in the XII edition of Systema Naturae (1766); an incomplete skeleton of a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus). 

Unfortunately the death of Vallisneri  junior (1777) was followed by a long period during which the teaching of Natural History was suspended and the collections were left abandoned.
During this period the only acquisitions of zoological interest were the finds from the Padova monastery San Giovanni da Verdara and some examples of Adriatic fauna which had belonged to the Abbott Giuseppe Olivi, a famous naturalist.

The changing fortunes of the Cabinet of Natural History led to the irreparable damage of several objects belonging to the original Vallisneri collection.

 

The 1800s

In 1806 the teaching of Natural History was taken up again by Stefano Andrea Renier, who enlarged the collection and compiled the first catalogue of the objects present.
Under his direction, the Museum acquired an elephant skeleton that had been killed in Venice in 1819.
Renier’s successor, Tommaso Antonio Catullo, helped by his deputy, Giandomenico Nardo, kept on cataloguing the items with a more scientific and up-to-date approach compared to Renier’s. In addition, he created a register where all the acquisitions, donations and expenses were traced.
The species counted at the time were more than 1400.

After some years of no particular interest, finally in 1869 the teaching of Natural Sciences was divided into “Geology and Mineralogy” and “Zoology and Comparative Anatomy”.
The latter was handed over to Giovanni Canestrini, that kept it until his death (1900).

Canestrini was a scholar of great worth and was the first to translate Darwin's The origin of species in Italian. At the same time, he put much effort in the enlargement of what, under his guide, became the “Zoology and Comparative Anatomy Museum”.
In 1873, the Museum was transferred from the original site, Palazzo del Bo’, to the Scuola di S. Mattia, near the town hospital.

Thanks to Canestrini, the exposition was enlarged with new collections of birds and fishes as well as an extended collection of Arachnids (his specialty) and Myriapoda, including many types and new species for Italy. The latter collection is yet to be exhaustively studied..

Under his influence, the catalogue of the collections was expanded as well. At the time, the collections were larger than today because of the subsequent losses caused by an inadequate preservation as well as the war effects on the museum pieces.

 

The 1900s

In 1905 Carazzi, the director of the Museum, fought for having a brand-new structure built in via Loredan 10, that eventually became the new house for the Museum, but only after the First World War, between 1919 and 1920.

In the 50’s, under the direction of Umberto D'Ancona, professor G. Marcuzzi was given the task of re-ordering the Museum: he restored the items still in good condition and displayed them in new functional windows; he resumed cataloguing the items and, though not getting to a complete list, he figured the species in the Museum to be more than 5000.

The renovated Museum, with more detailed displays, was reopened to the public in 1966, on the occasion of the annual Museum Week.

Quickly, though, the building in via Loredan became too crowded and the spaces reserved for the Museum started to be occupied by objects not related to the Museum.

In 1979, all the collections, along with their furniture, were moved to a new structure in via Jappelli 1/A, where they are still located.

 

The 2000s

Since a few years, the University of Padova has been investing a large amount of money in the creation of a Museum Centre where all the University’s scientific Museums are gathering together.
This extended museum is going to be located inside Palazzo Cavalli.

The first funds are now allowing the restoration of the items abandoned for long as well as a new catalogue of the objects, along with its computerized version.