Until April 10, 2023 in Bologna, an exhibition between art and science takes place to celebrate the 500th birthday of Ulis Aldrovandi

Exhibition itinerary It was born to accompany the visitor on a journey to discover an episode of the Renaissance that is as important as it is unknown, because it is overshadowed by the masterpieces of art and architecture recognized by the whole world: The awakening of the natural sciences.

Traces of the extraordinary story of this handful of early scholars would have been lost if the University of Bologna had not been preserved in its collections.and in its library, an exceptional legacy of objects, pictures, books, and manuscripts, linked both to the bequest made to the city by Aldrovandi, and to the collections of the Institute of Sciences later established by Luigi Ferdinando Marcelli.

The other Renaissance In fact, it presents the visitor with several “gems” that have been preserved by, and mostly never before been shown by, the alma mater, including the Cosby Code, one of thirteen pre-Columbian codes left in the world, some of the earliest maps of the known world, volumes with illustrations by Aldrovandi, and, of course, the naturalistic collection of the great Bolognese scholar, the only one that has come down to us almost entirely, as well as the largest, most important, and best-known of its time. With them are objects and artworks from important Italian museums, such as the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo and the Galleria Spada and Museo delle Civiltà in Rome, along with immersive video presentations and digital installations.

The course of the exhibition starts from the “cultural shock” that followed the discovery of the New World. The book chronicles the transition from the study of the books of the ancients to the empirical study of nature, but also tells of the continuing medieval and Renaissance fascination with the fantastic and the brutal. It shows the birth and accomplishments of the first season of natural and science illustration. Discusses the “discovery” of Native American humanity. He then rebuilt the Aldrovandi House Museum, finally following the development of the life sciences revived in the following centuries by the “Wunderkammer” with some of the most extraordinary objects preserved in the collections of the University of Bologna. It is ‘stacked together’ from the story of an audio guide in which the curator personally accompanies the visitor from one object to another, on traces of the past and on discovering the roots of the present. To see how, from ancient times, we began to be modern.