Description
The Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology in Florence is a university museum on Via del Proconsolo, a stone's throw from the Duomo, inside Palazzo Nonfinito. It holds about 25,000 objects from peoples all over the world, spread across 25 rooms.
The collections began with the Medici. As early as the 16th century a war trumpet from the Congo, clubs and cloaks of the Tupinamba of Brazil reached Florence: they displayed them in their "cabinets of wonders" to amaze their guests. Today they are among the museum's oldest pieces.
It was founded in 1869 by the anthropologist Paolo Mantegazza. In 1922 it was refounded as the first Italian museum devoted to anthropology and ethnographic research. Today it is part of the University of Florence's museum system.
Among the African pieces, the ivory spoons of the ancient kingdom of Benin, in the Bini-Portuguese style, are among the oldest African artifacts in a European collection. Italy's former colonies, such as Libya and Somalia, are also well documented. There are also weapons and household items from Sudan, Luba sculptures and Maasai objects.
From Asia come the objects of the Ainu of Japan, collected by Fosco Maraini, and a very rich section devoted to Indonesia. A whole village chief's hut from the Batak of Sumatra stands out, with its livestock palisade and woven thatch roof.
From Tibet come ritual objects, including an apron made of bones, and religious banners. From the peoples of Siberia come wooden sculptures and a harp with a swan-shaped body.
From Oceania and the Americas come the finds of James Cook's third expedition: Eskimo harpoons, Maori ornaments, clothes of fibers and feathers. There are also Aztec and Inca artifacts and Peruvian mummies, curled up in the fetal position.
For strong stomachs there are the trophy heads of the Amazon, dried after the brain was removed to take on the valor of the slain enemy, and the shrunken ones of the Shuar of Ecuador. Less macabre is the Patagonian, a statue of a giant more than two meters tall.
The Patagonian was carved in the 17th century by taking the accounts of the first explorers literally. It is an example of how travel tales let the imagination run wild.
The museum also keeps anthropometric instruments, used to measure people's anatomical features, and a photographic archive built up since 1869. They are part of the history of a science that today we look at with very different eyes.
Don't miss
• The ivory spoons of Benin.
• The Sumatran hut.
• The finds from Cook's expedition.
• The Patagonian.
Did you know?
• Palazzo Nonfinito, which houses it, was left unfinished: the museum arrived there in 1924.
• The museum also has a plaster cast gallery, with plaster models available to scholars.
The collections began with the Medici. As early as the 16th century a war trumpet from the Congo, clubs and cloaks of the Tupinamba of Brazil reached Florence: they displayed them in their "cabinets of wonders" to amaze their guests. Today they are among the museum's oldest pieces.
It was founded in 1869 by the anthropologist Paolo Mantegazza. In 1922 it was refounded as the first Italian museum devoted to anthropology and ethnographic research. Today it is part of the University of Florence's museum system.
Among the African pieces, the ivory spoons of the ancient kingdom of Benin, in the Bini-Portuguese style, are among the oldest African artifacts in a European collection. Italy's former colonies, such as Libya and Somalia, are also well documented. There are also weapons and household items from Sudan, Luba sculptures and Maasai objects.
From Asia come the objects of the Ainu of Japan, collected by Fosco Maraini, and a very rich section devoted to Indonesia. A whole village chief's hut from the Batak of Sumatra stands out, with its livestock palisade and woven thatch roof.
From Tibet come ritual objects, including an apron made of bones, and religious banners. From the peoples of Siberia come wooden sculptures and a harp with a swan-shaped body.
From Oceania and the Americas come the finds of James Cook's third expedition: Eskimo harpoons, Maori ornaments, clothes of fibers and feathers. There are also Aztec and Inca artifacts and Peruvian mummies, curled up in the fetal position.
For strong stomachs there are the trophy heads of the Amazon, dried after the brain was removed to take on the valor of the slain enemy, and the shrunken ones of the Shuar of Ecuador. Less macabre is the Patagonian, a statue of a giant more than two meters tall.
The Patagonian was carved in the 17th century by taking the accounts of the first explorers literally. It is an example of how travel tales let the imagination run wild.
The museum also keeps anthropometric instruments, used to measure people's anatomical features, and a photographic archive built up since 1869. They are part of the history of a science that today we look at with very different eyes.
Don't miss
• The ivory spoons of Benin.
• The Sumatran hut.
• The finds from Cook's expedition.
• The Patagonian.
Did you know?
• Palazzo Nonfinito, which houses it, was left unfinished: the museum arrived there in 1924.
• The museum also has a plaster cast gallery, with plaster models available to scholars.