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.

By the end of the ’70, after the Carthusian Monastery of Pisa had been abandoned by the monk, professor Ezio Tongiorgi worked towards trying to have the prestigious monumental complex entrusted in perpetual free use to the University, so that it could be used to host the Natural History Museum, of which Tongiorgi cured the set up and the transport and of which he was director from 1977 to 1985.