Address: Via Proconsolo, 12
Founded in 1869 by the famous anthropologist Paolo Mantegazza,
this was the first of its kind in Italy. It is in Palazzo
Nonfinito which was begun in 1593 to the design of Bernardo
Buontalenti and carried on but not completed by G. Battista
Caccini, and subsequently by Cigoli in the early seventeenth
century.
The material it contains relates to the habits and customs of the
different parts of the world and collections illustrative of the
different races: harnasses, straw and wooden containers,
necklaces and amulets from Africa, musical instruments, ceramics
and idols from Asia and the Polynesian Isles, costumes, arrows
and boats from China, New Guinea, the Indies and so on.
Among the curiosities are the musical instruments assembled by
the Tuscan painter Galileo Chini in the first decades of this
century. Chini was summoned by the King of Siam to decorate his
palace. Skulls from all over the world constitute the most
important part of the anthropological collection.
