The Museum of the History of Bologna is a real treat. It covers a few floors of the Palazzo Pepoli and there were limited English descriptions for us to read. Luckily there was an audio guide which we really like as it is very convenient when we can listen to the guide through our RayBan sunglasses. There was a wide range of exhibits that followed a chronological arc of the history of Bologna. A most delightful visit indeed!
A tiny little dog blocking our progress
Fancy benches
The gates are open
The first floor has a large glassed in area with displays
This is a diagram showing the largest sundail in the world
These are the oldest drawings from pre-history
Antient pottery
Pottery from the Greek era
A big stick wielding Etruscan
Bologna is found in the center of this Roman road the Aemilla road from 268 CE
Religious artifacts
Religious figures were instrumental in the early days of Bologna, Archbishop Ambrose and Saint Petronius
Guilds gained power in the middle ages, this was the crest of the physician's guild
Fortified towers began to pop up starting 1000 CE
Here they are mapped
Bologna was features in many paintings from the time of the "Grand Tout"
In the Jewish quarter, book binding, painting illuminated manuscripts, making silk and money lending were the activities they specialized in. Of course by the late 1500's they were banished, allowed back in and then banished again. The Jewish cemetery was actually destroyed
Different guild crests
A realistic wood carving
Guess who is going to hell! Dante came to Bologna to study
This man was the "corrector," the head of the Notaries guild
These are the actual rocks from the Roman road unearthed during construction
Recreations of the signs that used to hang from the porticos
To the Fox
At the time these pictures explained what the shop did
But now it is anyone's guess
This one was extra sweet as people make up the letters
A cut away model of the biggest tower
These are the stairs that wind their way up up and up
The old walled city
Time to battle
Oh the carnage
Odd graphics on the walls
It is time to see more1
Armaments
A shield too
Celestial
Allegorical scenes in the music room
Lots of winged folks
The Griffoni Polyptych was 23 panels painted 550 years ago and it adorned a chapel in Bologna for 200 years. A new owner removed the panels and sold them one by one and they gradually were dispersed across the world. in 2020 16 of the known and remaining panels were brought together for one showing. These reproductions were made from images taken at that time
Illustrations of the various vendors that worked the streets of Bologna. This is a perfumier
The weaver of hats
Get your bees here! Beer here1
Have books so sell and read at the same time
The rats on his flag identify this man as the rat catcher
The street dentist
What kind of beasts are hanging around the royal court?
All kinds of beasties indeed
Puppets too
It is like a small town
Devil!
We have seen puppetry in Salerno and in Bologna
Popular indeed. we saw puppets on the street
The medical fields became more scientific with the study of anatomy and the discovery of the microscope which eventually led to germ theory
First they had to discredit the alchemist's medicinal potions many of which included snake venom
The plague still held sway
More towers
No expense was spared in the Palazzos
Mamma Mia!
A father and son team
Made the more extravagant
Sets of exotic porcelain like this 900 piece set
Many folks of all walks of life were part of the resistance to the foreign rulers of Italy in the 1800's. This is Ugo Bassi a priest who fought against the Austrians and the French. He was wounded, recovered and later captured and executed by the Austrians.
Many new artistic schools emerged
L'Aemilia Ars was one
A mix of deco and baroque
Artists hamming it up at a exposition of Futuristics
Masrconi's radio
His patent for the invention
The devil's brew
A section on advertising
How to deal with unruly curls
Making the booze look good
Italy is very seismically active
Early seismometers
Another great hall celebrating the contribution of bologna's women
A large modern mural
Bologna was a city of canals, most of them now covered and underground
This exhibit tried to show the underground passageways
With eerie black light illumination
It has been 2 years and 340 days since we began our Migration
