1600-1700: fall and rise
About the half of the XVII century the Pisa’s Gallery went through a period of decadence: in 1672 cardinal Leopoldo of Medici commissioned to the Danish Niccolò Stenone the writing of a brand new inventory of the objects in the Gallery, also giving him the task to choose and take “a few curiosities for the Gallery starting in Florence”.
In spite of that, during the XVII century, the Gallery kept developing, thanks to the incorporation of the personal collections of some Prefects.
In 1737, when the Grand Duchy passed on from the Medici to the Lorena, there was a turning point: Pisa and its University became one of the most important center of studies and scientific debates in Tuscany. Also, in 1747 Francesco di Lorena bought for the Pisa Gallery a huge part of the great shells and zoophytes collection of the Florentine doctor Niccolò Gualtieri, collection made, as well as of other relics, of over 3600 original specimens collected by the Dutch naturalist Georg Ederhard Rumph, painted by Gualtieri himself in his Index Testarum Conchyliorum published in Florence in 1742.
With the beginning of the Enlightenment’s conception, the Gallery has been deeply renewed according to the scientific accuracy, excluding the artifacts and exhibiting the natural finds on the basis of a systematic order. The aim is not anymore to amaze the visitor, but to increase their knowledge.