A museum through the centuries: the location, layout and transfer of the Cospi Museum

Journal article

This article investigates the formation and afterlife of the Cospi Museum, one of Europe’s first public museums, assembled over the course of the seventeenth century between Florence and Bologna by Ferdinando Cospi (1606–86). Drawing on new and unpublished evidence, it examines its founder’s developing curatorial concerns and legacy-building attempts as well as the shifting museological approaches of the successive generations in charge of the museum’s upkeeping. Newly uncovered manuscripts and plans shed light on the museum’s location, layout, and successive transfers from the seventeenth century to the present day. Against this backdrop, the article explores how Cospi justified his collecting ambitions and garnered civic support for his display venture. Today, the Cospi Museum is dispersed across multiple museums and libraries. Yet its history remains not only a landmark in European museology, but also a mirror of the shifting political, cultural, and social dynamics of the diverse eras through which it evolved.

Authors: Gigante, F

• Publication status: Accepted
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Journal of the History of Collections
• Acceptance date: 2025-11-26
• EISSN: 1477-8564
• ISSN: 0954-6650
• Language: English