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”.

1800: independence and success

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.