The pharmacy collection of the Science Museum in Milan

In September 2022 we have visited the history of pharmacy collection of the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci in Milan. It is one of the smallest collection of this impressive museum of science and technology, exhibited for the first time in 1957. It was meant to evoke the atmosphere of the old monastic pharmacies (as one of the museum buildings is a former Olivetan monastery). At the same time, the display was intended to point to the connection between art, science, and technology. The furniture is not from an old pharmacy, but from a religious context, and the stuffed crocodiles dated to the 19th century, a time when it was no longer fashionable to decorated pharmacies with exotic animals. Most of the artifacts in this collection were obtained from the antiquities market, thus their original contexts of use remain unknown, but the small display is very beautiful and evocative. In 2016 all items were conserved/restored. We thank Mrs. Simona Casonato and her colleagues for the special guided tour.