The Zoology Museum of Padua University: a rediscovered ... · THE ZOOLOGY MUSEUM OF PADUA...

88 PAOLA NICOLOSI

The Zoology Museum of Padua University: a rediscovered historical heritage

Paola NicolosiMuseo di Zoologia, Università di Padova, Via Jappelli, 1/a. I-35121 Padova. E-mail: [email protected]

Museologia descrittiva e storicaMUSEOLOGIA SCIENTIFICA nuova serie • 10: 88-93 • 2016 ISSN 1123-265X

ABSTRACTThe Zoological Museum of the University of Padova was founded in the 18th century thanks to the legacy ofAntonio Vallisneri and donated by his son, Antonio, to the University. In the following centurymany acquisitions, donations and expeditions enriched the collections of the museumof valuable specimens. During the 20thcentury, the Museum went through a period of decline due to the WorldWars and the frequent changes of seat, up to its total closure at the end of the 1970 decade. Fortunately, the long and important history of this Museum had a happy ending. The building and thecollections have been recently restored and exposed to the public.In 2014 the current setting was completed in time to celebrate ten years from its re-opening (2004-2014).The event was dedicated to professor Margherita Turchetto, who worked on the project of the new Museumsince its beginning, always believing in the importance of museums for scientific knowledge.

Key words: zoological collections, University of Padova, historical specimens, new opening.

RIASSUNTOIl Museo di Zoologia dell’Università di Padova: un patrimonio storico ritrovato.

Il Museo di Zoologia dell’Università di Padova affonda le sue radici nel XVIII secolo grazie alla donazionedella collezione privata di Antonio Vallisneri (1661-1730) da parte del figlio. Come molti altri musei storici italiani, ha alternato periodi di splendore, in cui vennero acquisiti molti reperti,frutto di donazioni, spedizioni, acquisti, a periodi di abbandono delle collezioni. La sua lunga ed importantestoria vanta però un finale fortunato dato che, in tempi recenti, le collezioni sono state restaurate e nuovamenteesposte al pubblico. Nel 2014 è stato completato l’attuale allestimento e il decennale della riapertura è statodedicato alla professoressa Margherita Turchetto che ha contribuito alla progettazione e ha sempre creduto nelruolo fondamentale dei musei per la divulgazione scientifica.

Parole chiave: collezioni zoologiche, Università di Padova, reperti storici, nuova apertura.

INTRODUCTIONThe Zoology museum of the University of Padova(see web site 1) celebrated, in May 2014, the tenthanniversary from the opening of the new expositionrooms, in 2004, thanks to an outstanding financialsupport of the University. The old location, anancient building located in the centre of Padova, didnot permit the adequate preservation of thespecimens and their exploitation by students andresearchers.At that time the professors in charge of thecollections (Margherita Turchetto and SandraCasellato) did their best to plan the recovery of theancient specimens and to provide them a decorouslocation. Their aim was to use the same rooms wherethe ancient specimens were stored and restore boththe ancient collections and the beautiful location.The University provided the first financial supports

and opened a position of curator as “trustee” of theZoology museum of the University, a fundamentalfigure for the daily activities of recovery andpromotion of the precious material of the ancientcollections.A small group of professional worked since thesecond half of 1990s to restore the zoologicalcollections, in order to allow the new opening of themuseum. The restored ancient location, should havebeen a temporary one, as there was a plan for amuseum pole to join together all scientific collectionsof the University, with particular reference to thenaturalistic ones (zoology, anthropology, mineralogy,geology and paleontology).

HISTORY OF THE MUSEUMThe restoration of the historical museum seat beganat the end of the last century. At the beginning, the

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89THE ZOOLOGY MUSEUM OF PADUA UNIVERSITY: A REDISCOVERED HISTORICAL HERITAGE

roof of the entire building was rebuilt, making all theattic available. In the largest room a loft was built, inorder to provide an internal storehouse for themuseum.Works inside the building began in 2001. The oldmetallic cabinets were discharged, as they were nolonger useful for specimen conservation. The ancientwood display cases were preserved and later restored.As long as the restoration proceeded, specimens weremoved from one room to the other, to avoidadditional damage from relocating them in anotherplace (fig. 1). In 2002, the restoration of the entirefloor of the building ended and the setting up of theexposition and the rearrangement of the ancientcollections began.Aim of the new exposition was to tell the history ofthe studies and researches performed since the 17th

century by many distinguished researchers, that ledto the collection we can see today.The founder of the collection was Antonio Vallisneri(1661-1730). He was professor of Medicine at theUniversity of Padova between 1700 and 1730. Afterhis death, his son, Antonio Vallisneri junior (1708-1777), donated the private collection to theUniversity of Padova, giving rise to the original coreof the Natural History Museum. The museum (MuseoVallisneriano) was first located within the ancientbuilding of the University (Palazzo del Bo’). Theexposition of Antonio Vallisneri junior was performedaccording to a didactic criterion, as he had been thefirst Professor of Natural History of the Universityof Padova since 1734 (Casellato 1991; 1997; 2002;2008). The museum stayed there until the second halfof the 19th century. During this century, the museumreceived most of its donations and acquisitions.

Stefano Andrea Renier (1759-1830) succeededVallisneri junior as director of the Museum andbought most of the vertebrates preserved up to now(Gibin, 2008). Other relevant pieces of African faunawere a gift from the Italian consul in Egypt: GiuseppeAcerbi (1773-1846). Most of the invertebrates wereacquired by Giovanni Canestrini (1835-1900) whoenriched the museum with a relevant collection ofmites, spiders, and shells, and with the specimens, hecollected during an eventful campaign in the Sea ofSciacca, in Sicily (Canestrini & Canestrini, 1883).Most of the specimens of the museum have historicalvalue. For this reason, we decided to arrange theexposition according to the figures that contributedto the constitution of the museum during the times.Besides the historical point of view, we selected somethemes of relevance at the present days, such aspreservation of the species, destruction of naturalhabitats, biodiversity reduction, allochthonousspecies introduction and other phenomena associatedwith the complex climate change of these times.

THE MUSEUM TODAYThe exposition is divided into four halls. We selectedfor presentation those specimens having both thehighest historical value and the best conservation.Through the displayed pieces, we dealt with variousthemes, telling the stories of the most importantscientists and collections, or peculiar stories of someof the animals specimens. The first hall is dedicated to the 18th century and tothe founders of the museum (fig. 2): AntonioVallisneri father and son. Their naturalistic collectionwas the subject of many different studies, that havebeen published after the death of Vallisneri father inthe “Opere Fisico-mediche” (Vallisneri, 1733). Thishall tells the history of the common origin of thisnaturalistic museum with other of this University andexhibits zoological finds that were common in thiskind of exposition in the 18th century. The causes ofdeath of the exposed animals are explained, as wellas the different forms of preparation and conservationthat can be used: naturalized or taxidermized animals,specimens in alcohol, bones, skeletons, skulls, shells,insects and so on. The most important specimen isthe holotype of the leatherback turtle, Dermochelyscoriacea (Vandelli, 1761) (Fretey & Bour, 1980). It is anaturalized specimen, captured in the Tyrrhenian Seaand gifted to the University of Padova by the popeClemente XIII in 1760 (Nicolosi & Turchetto, 2008).The second hall is dedicated to the 19th century andto the great donations made to the museum at thattime. After the death of Vallisneri junior, the museumdirection remained vacant for 30 years, until StefanoAndrea Renier was charged of it in 1806. During hisdirection, the museum acquired many specimens:mainly shells and fishes from the Mediterranean Sea,

Fig. 1. The zoological collections before

the restoration (photo P. Nicolosi).


but also rare or exotic species. This hall displays manyvertebrates of that time coming from the so called“exotic countries” (fig. 3). Throughout these rarespecimens we can explain to visitors some interestingsubjects as the loss of biodiversity associated with thedegradation of natural environments, with theintroduction of allochthonous species and theconflicts between these species and the autochthonones, and in general the content of this hall deals withthe threats of the extinction of many animal speciesand the actions people can undertake to preserve ourplanet. In this room, there are many interestingskeletons, such as a harbor seal (Phoca vitulina), aBengala tiger (Panthera t. tigris), a young specimen ofgiraffe (Giraffa cameleopardalis), an ostrich (Struthiocamelus) and a skull of a hippopotamus (Hippopotamusamphibius). The most important specimen exposed in

this hall is the skeleton of the Indian elephant (Elephasmaximus) killed by Austrian soldiers in Venice in 1819,during the carnival. Renier bought the dead animalto include it in the collection of the museum(Turchetto, 2004).The last two rooms are dedicated to the local faunaof North-eastern Italy. They were set up between2009 and 2010 but completed in 2014 for thecelebration of the ten years of the museum opening.In May 2014 the Department of Biology and theUniversity Museum Centre (CAM, Centro di Ateneoper i Musei) organised a day to remember professorMargherita Turchetto, who dedicated more than 15years to the renovation and opening of the ‘new’museum. The setting of these halls is different thanthat of the former ones, both because of the themesand the graphics (fig. 4).In the smallest of these halls there are only twoshowcases exposing the regional fauna: one withanimals coming from the countryside and theEuganean hills (group oh hills of volcanic origin, 30km from the town of Padova) and the other withhistorical specimens from the Dolomites Alps. Themost interesting specimens are the brown bear (Ursusarctos), the wolf (Canis lupus) and the lynx (Lynx lynx),all samples from the 19th century. These animals werechosen to discuss on problems connected with faunamanagement: the reintroduction of big carnivores(such as the brown bear and the lynx) in theDolomite mountains and the return of the wolf afterover one century of local extinction. Others themesare: the importance of endemic species and theproblem of animals that have been introduced, themanagement of which is troublesome, such as the

90 PAOLA NICOLOSI

Fig. 2. New setting: the first hall of the Zoology

Museum (photo P. Nicolosi).

Fig. 3. New setting: the second hall of the zoology museum (photo M. Pistore, University of Padova).



nutrias (Myocastor coypus), causing severe damages tothe banks of local rivers, or the wild boars (Sus scrofa),that are overpopulating the Euganean hills andaffecting crops production. For these reasons thesetting of this room has been realized thanks to thecooperation of the Corpo Forestale dello Stato,which provided useful informations on projects onfauna management (see web sites 2, 3) and a videomade by the local bureau for biodiversity of Tarvisio(see web site 4).The last section of the museum is located in thesaloon below the loft. A metallic panel defines a smallroom, which is used as a laboratory for the restorationof the ancient samples. A short narrow walkintroduces to the main saloon and exposes only somefew lagoon birds living in this delicate environment.An introductory panel depicts briefly the mainfeatures of the Adriatic Sea and of the “tegnue”, adistinctive environment of the Northern Adriatic Seabetween Chioggia and the Trieste gulf, characterizedby a rocky substrate in an otherwise sandyenvironment (Casellato et al., 2007; Casellato &Stefanon, 2008). Several large specimens are exposedin this room. Each one of them would require a hallon its own: the skull and some vertebras of a spermwhale (Physeter macrocephalus) captured in Zara, in 1767(Nicolosi, 2014) (fig. 5); the stuffed specimen of awhite shark (Carcharodon carcharias) fished in theAdriatic Sea in 1823 (fig. 6), the complete skeletonof a Risso’s Dolphin (Grampus griseus) that was preparedin 1956, when the zoologist Umberto D’Ancona(1896-1964) was director of the Institute of Zoologyand Comparative Anatomy. The skeleton is displayedclose to the model of the dolphin and to the panelexplaining the main characteristics and adaptationsof cetaceans to the sea life. Several naturalized fishes

illustrate the diversity of species living in the AdriaticSea and a cabinet is dedicated to the exhibition ofmarine invertebrates.Despite its beauty and the historic value of itscollections, the small Zoology Museum of theUniversity of Padova has limitations: the availablespaces are narrow, there are few cabinets, even if theyare new and tailor-made to receive the highestpossible number of specimens and to provide the bestexperience for the visitors, the storage room and thelaboratory are insufficient to fit the requirements ofthe services, lighting, heating and dehumidificationshould be improved to enable a better preservationof the historical material along the time.

THE FUTURE OF THE MUSEUMFor a long time it has been spoken to join all thescientific collections of the University of Padova in alarge Museum of Sciences. Now, this project seemsmore close to reality.In 2014, the preliminary project of the futureMuseum of Natural History (MuSNa: Museo diStoria Naturale) was approved. A small exhibit of ithas been recently presented at the historical PalazzoCavalli, where the future entrance of the museum willbe. The building is located in a strategical point ofthe city, closest to the Arena gardens, where thefamous Scrovegni Chapel is.The naturalistic museums of our university could notfind any better location for the definitive expositionof all historical collections. The new setting will showthe heritage of hundreds of years of studies andresearches made by scientists of the University ofPadova. There are good hopes that the entire MuSNaproject will be a reality increasing the value of thecity in a magnificent historical and artistic scenario.

Fig. 4. New setting: the hall dedicated to the local fauna (photo M. Pistore, University of Padova).


CONCLUSIONIn spring 2014, the museum celebrated the first tenyears of the opening to the public, thanks to theinvestment of the University of Padova and to allthose, who have believed in its creation, since thebeginning. Since the year 2000, six thematicexpositions have been realized: three in theUniversity Museum Centre (CAM) and the others inthe new exposition setting, starting from the year2006.The main aim of the work that has been done in theseyears is the restoration and the study of the ancientcollections. We started from the collections stored inliquid, because of their worse preservation, then wefocused on stuffed specimens. Many restorationprocedures have been performed inside the museum,but the largest animals have been processed byspecialized firms.The results of all these works are the rearrangementand cataloguing of over 5000 specimens, theparticipation to national and international congresses,more than 20 among oral presentations, abstracts,papers published in national and internationaljournals (Casale et al., 2003; Guidarelli et al., 2014)and books dedicated to some historical specimen.Many studies performed in the museum were usefulfor about 15 degree theses, mainly in natural sciences;these studies dealt on rearrangement and restoration,classification, morphometric analyses, historicalresearches, exposition projects, and recently also fieldstudies. Didactical activities with students of localschools have been done since the opening of themuseum, as much as cooperation with the municipallibrary, the hospital and a formation project for theteachers.All the museum specimens have been included in adigital catalogue. The complete classification of allvertebrate specimens has been performed in recent

92 PAOLA NICOLOSI

years: the classification of the invertebrate specimensis in progress. As a final remark, it must behighlighted the publication of books on the historyof some of the most important finds of thecollections: the skeleton of the Indian elephant(Turchetto, 2004), the holotype of the leatherbackturtle (Nicolosi & Turchetto, 2008) and birdscollection recently donated by a private taxidermistand naturalistic (Nicolosi & Paolucci, 2015).Since 2008, the museum is community service place.In 2015 a museum project on Vertebrate Extinctionhas been financed by the MIUR (D.L. 6/2000) in ajoint project with the Regional Science Museum ofTorino, the University Bicocca of Milan and theScience Museum of Trento (MUSE) that realized anexhibition on this theme, inaugurated in July 2016.The past and the recent history of the collections ofthe Zoology Museum are probably a rare and luckyexample of restoration of a part of the nationalheritage, which is present in the museums (historicalcollections) and that, often, is not accessible to the

Fig. 5. The sperm whale specimen,

Physeter macrocephalus (Adriatic Sea, 1767) (photo P. Nicolosi).

Fig. 6. The white shark, Carcharodon carcharias (Adriatic Sea, 1823) (photo M. Pistore, University of Padova).



public and is not appreciated as it should (Andreoneet al., 2014).To conclude, I strongly hope that the new collectionsseat could give a deserved and definitive place to thisso relevant historical heritage that has long beenneglected and that has finally been found again.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSWe must acknowledge the directors of the UniversityMuseum Centre , the directors of the Department ofBiology and the professors that contriduted topreserve and maintain these precious zoologicalcollections until nowadays and also, the directors ofthe constructions sector, the directors of thetreasurer’s office, the regional head of the CorpoForestale dello Stato, dr. Daniele Zovi, dr. PaoloMolinari of the ‘Lynx Italy Project’ for the counselingin the 3rd hall, all volunteers and cooperators whosework allowed the opening of the museum. Finally, Ishall thank Dr. Andrea Lafisca for the kind translationof the text.

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CASALE P., NICOLOSI P., FREGGI D., TURCHETTO M.,ARGANO R., 2003. Leatherback turtles (Dermochelyscoriacea) in Italy and the Mediterranean Basin.Herpetological Journal, 13: 135-139.

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CASELLATO S., 2002. Antonio Vallisneri junior. In:Casellato S., Sitran Rea L. (eds), Scienziati eProfessori a Padova nel ‘700. Contributi alla storiadell’Università di Padova, pp. 553-559.

CASELLATO S., 2008. Le Scienze della Natura primadell’istituzione della Facoltà di Scienze MM FF e NN (1734-1873). In: Casellato S. (ed.), Per la Storia della Facoltà

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Web sites (accessed 20.10.16)1) Centro di Ateneo per i Musei dell’Università degliStudi di Padova, Museo di Zoologiawww.unipd.it/musei/zoologia 2) KORA, Carnivore Ecology and WildlifeManagementwww.kora.ch 3) Progetto Lince Italia, Il sito italiano interamentededicato alla Lince Eurasiatica e al suo habitatwww.progetto-lince-italia.it 4) Corpo Forestale dello Stato, Foresta di Tarvisio,www.corpoforestale.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/421

Submitted: July 28th, 2016 - Accepted: October 27th, 2016Published: December 16th, 2016


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