The gallery of movable instruments

The gallery of movable instruments is the central hall of the Museum and once served as the space where Piazzi held astronomy lessons for his students. It houses several paintings, primarily portraits of astronomers, political figures, and instrument makers, most of which date back to the early 1800s. Among them is a portrait of Piazzi pointing to Ceres, placed on the central column of the room.

On the walls hang portraits commissioned by Piazzi and painted by Giuseppe Velasco: on the right, the French astronomer Jérôme de Lalande, and on the left, a diptych depicting the Englishmen Jesse Ramsden and William Herschel.

The Gallery still preserves the elegant display cases and consoles designed in the late 18th century by the French architect Léon Dufourny. These were created to house the Specola’s scientific instruments, which include telescopes, as well as tools for topography, physics, and chronometry—alongside a rare and valuable pair of celestial and terrestrial globes.

Also on display in the Gallery are the Lerebours & Secretan equatorial telescope, the Worthington altazimuth telescope, and the Merz refracting telescope. These instruments once belonged to Prince Giulio Fabrizio Tomasi di Lampedusa, the historical figure who inspired the protagonist of the famous novel The Leopard, and were later used by director Luchino Visconti on the set of the film adaptation.