Museo Storia Naturale - La Specola was founded in Florence by Grand Duke of Tuscany Peter Leopold (1747-1792) as il Reale Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale (The Royal Museum for Physics and Natural History) in 1771. Located on the Via Romana in the former Palazzo Torrigani next to the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens, the grand duke appointed physiologist Felice Fontana (1730-1805) as director. It became the first science museum open to the public in 1775. It’s current name, La Specola, is a reference to the astronomical and meteorological observatory added to the site in 1790.

Florence’s scientific community had urged the grand duke to reorganize the collections gathered over the centuries by the Medici family for public display, bringing together natural history curiosities and scientific instruments originally housed in the Galleria Imperiale, Pitti Palace, and Uffizi Gallery. Additionally, sculptor Clemente Michelangelo Susini (1754–1814) was hired to create anatomical wax models for educational purposes, which he produced with artistic flair in a ceroplastics workshop on the premises. His work was of such a high quality that in 1780, after visiting the museum, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (brother of the grand duke) commissioned Susini to create for him more than 1,000 anatomical wax models. These sculptures are still visible today in the Josephinum, the Medical History Museum Vienna.

La Specola was originally focused on all of the physical and natural sciences. However, following the closure of the original museum in the late 19th century and redistribution of some collections to other facilities, such as Museo Galileo (the former Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza), the museum’s collections now primarily focus on anatomy, zoology, and natural history. The museum features a Hall of Skeletons (accessible by reservation for a private guided tour); a large array of stuffed animals, including a former Medici pet hippopotamus that once wallowed in the Boboli Gardens; a collection of exquisite anatomical waxes from the 16th through 18th centuries, including important works by Susini and others (guided tour required); and, after a century away, the return of collections of mineralogy and botanical waxes.