In the 17th century, experiments and demonstrations of natural philosophy began to spread but remained confined mainly within scientific academies. It was with the influence of Isaac Newton that, in England, “lecture-demonstrations” took hold: public lessons accompanied by experiments that aimed to disseminate Newtonian philosophy through often spectacular experiments. This model, born from the Royal Society, spread rapidly in Europe, giving rise to new chairs of “experimental philosophy” or “experimental physics” and the creation of Physics Cabinets, complete collections of scientific instruments for research and teaching.
It is in this context that in Padua, in 1738, the chair of experimental philosophy was established, assigned in 1739 to Giovanni Poleni, who created a collection of instruments aimed at demonstrating the laws of physics to students through various experimental demonstrations. This collection reflects the radical changes in the teaching of the time, which aimed among other things to combine “the useful with the pleasant,” combining scientific rigor and spectacle, as stated by Jean Antoine Nollet, physicist of the French court and correspondent of Poleni.
Although primarily intended for teaching, Poleni’s collection also included instruments used for his research. An emblematic example is the “macchina divulsoria” (testing machine), used by Poleni to study the resistance of materials during the restoration of the dome of St. Peter’s in Rome in 1743. At the request of Pope Benedict XIV, Poleni analyzed the structure of the dome, advising reinforcement with iron hoops. The testing machine, used to determine the cross-section of the hoops, is now preserved in the Museum.