Museum of
Anthropology and Ethnology
The exhibition itinerary
A stone's throw from the Duomo, in Palazzo Nonfinito, designed by the court architect Bernardo Buontalenti at the end of the 16th, there is Anthropology and Ethnology.
The Museum was founded in 1869 by the anthropologist Paolo Mantegazza who pursued the intent to collect the testimonies of human diversity: 18 rooms display prestigious and rich ethnographic collections, a document of great importance of the world's cultures.
There are objects of all kinds that illustrate the customs and traditions of various peoples: clothes, clothing accessories, ornaments and jewels; architectural elements, boats, idols and amulets; offense, defense and hunting weapons; tools for agricultural production, for fishing and for domestic life; home furnishing objects; musical instruments; liturgical objects of different cults; books, paintings and manuscripts. The oldest collections date back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They come from the collections of the Medici family who gathered refined objects from the New World.
The largest core of artifacts consists of objects collected by explorers during their travels over the centuries, from the eighteenth century onwards and from donations of scholars and travelers.
There are spectacular testimonies from South America with the artifacts of the Tupinanba people, in particular the two cloaks of Ibis Rubra. The objects belonging to the Ainu culture, from the island of Hokkaido in Japan with kimonos, jewels and domestic utensils, are extremely rare.
Mummies from Peru from the Inca period and a spectacular mourning dress (Heva) from Polynesia also draw the attention of the visitors. In the hall of New Guinea we can admire colorful mourning masks and skull-trophies, in addition to testimonies from North America, Lapland, Siberia, Indonesian Archipelago, Horn of Africa, South Africa.
On the ground floor, there are the beautiful rooms dedicated to the "Indian Museum" with collections collected and brought together by Angelo De Gubernatis, a well-known orientalist, during his trip to India. Among the most remarkable findings are a series of bronzes of religious significance, some panels in ivory with erotic scenes from the throne of Tanjore, various sculptures and architectural fragments of temples, games, ceramics, textiles and fabrics. The rich photographic archive is also noteworthy.
Heritage of the Museum is a collection of thousands of photographs taken between the late 1800s and early 1900s, a precious documentary collection of ethnographic collections.