Towards the end of the XVI century all over Europe were widespread the so-called Wunderkammern or Raritatkammern (“Chambers of wonders” o “Chambers of rarities”). Put together by kings, princes and lords fond of science, these collections included every kind of finding, without orders and without any standards but rarity and oddity.
In 1814 the University of Pisa took an historical turn, renouncing to the encyclopaedical timeworn approach and choosing to officially divide in different branches a science grown way too big.
To professor Gaetano Savi was appointed to the Botanic sector while professor Giorgio Santi was appointed to Zoology, Geology and Paleontology: therefore, the two of them were respectively put in charge to the Garden of Simples (the present Botanic Garden) and to the Museum, which became an autonomous administrative center. With this division, it was definitively closed the path on which the two institutions have walked together for more than two centuries.