Despite being engaged in cutting-edge research, Giovanni Poleni and his successors also purchased older instruments, dating back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, for educational purposes. These instruments, of great value, now enrich the Museum’s collection.
Among the most significant pieces are several sundials and a 16th-century brass armillary sphere, purchased in 1828 by Professor Salvatore Dal Negro to show students the history of astronomy. Another jewel in the collection is an astrolabe from 1566, signed by the prestigious builder Renerus Arsenius, who also made instruments for Philip II of Spain. These objects, symbols of erudition and power in the Renaissance, reflect an era in which mathematics was beginning to revolutionize fields such as topography, military art, navigation, and astronomy.
Among the 17th-century instruments are a microscope from 1671, made by the famous optician Eustachio Divini, and a convex lens from 1676, signed by the scientist Geminiano Montanari. Both purchased by Poleni between 1745 and 1746 to study the laws of optics, these instruments illustrate the Scientific Revolution, a period in which instrumentation began to play a central role in research, laying the foundations for the modern relationship between science and technology.