Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma

The Astronomic and Copernican Museum was founded in 1873, on the occasion of the celebrations for the birth of Nicholas Copernicus, great reformer of the planetary system. The historian Arthur Waljnski took care of the first collection of Copernican souvenirs to which in the course of time were added donations and purchases of ancient instruments and the parts of equipment installed in the Observatory that were gradually replaced by more modern material. The Museum keeps astrolabes, spyglasses, telescopes, meridians, globes of the world and of the heavens. Therefore a conspicuous documentation of the evolution of the instruments used in the astronomic field. It includes also a rich ancient library with very rare books including the first edition of the De revolutionibus orbium coelestium by Copernicus. A second museum location at the Astronomic Observatory at Monte Porzio keeps a rich photographic collection of heavenly bodies with images largely obtained by artificial space probes and satellites, in addition to a library of 15,000 volumes and a collection of astronomic magazines of the second half of the eighteenth century.