Trascrizione
In this Hall, for about a century were kept the naturalistic collections of Antonio Vallisneri, of whom you can admire the bust.
Professor of Practical and Theoretical Medicine in Padua between 1700 and 1730, his interests ranged from biology to botany, from zoology to mineralogy and geology. His collections constituted the first real museum of natural sciences of the University.
The son of Professor Vallisneri, who was also called Antonio, donated them to the University in 1733. And to make things even more confusing, the second Antonio also became a professor in Padua, but of Natural History, and continued to collect fossils and minerals.
In 1932 the Vallisneris collections were transferred to Palazzo Cavalli and with jewels such as the palm room, the Bolca fish, the saber-toothed tiger and the dwarf elephant, they form the nucleus of the Museum of Nature and Man.
A curiosity: hanging from the ceiling of this room you can see an armillary sphere, that is, a sphere with several concentric circles, which in the past adorned the dome of the University tower.