Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze

The Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze was established in 1784 by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Pietro Leopoldo, as a teaching collection for the students of the Academy of Fine Arts.Subsequent to reorganization and acquisitions made in the 1800s, the Accademia became the popular museum for works by Michelangelo, visited by millions of tourists due to the presence of the famous David. It should be kept in mind, however that, along with Michelangelo's statues, the Galleria houses a significant nucleus of works documenting the history of Florentine art from 1200 to the 1800s.The Museum of Musical Instruments is incorporated into the Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze. The inclusion of this Museum in the Galleria is the result of an agreement signed in 1996 between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage.The Museum contains about four hundred European and non-European instruments dating from the 17th to the 20th century, and which come from various collections, including Cosimo and Ferdinando de' Medici, the Lorraine family, Ferdinando Casamorata and Alessandro Kraus. Many bequests have also been added to this nucleus, notably gifts from Victor-Charles Mahillon (1841-1924), wind instrument maker and director of the Museum of Musical Instruments in Brussels, and from Countess Editta Rucellai, as well as many musicians.