The Accademia delle Scienze is situated on the piano nobile of a 18th century building in the heart of Turin that was originally designed as a Jesuit College for the scions of aristocratic families.
The recently restored scalone Guariniano leads to the Map Room, once the setting for the theatre. The room, its walls entirely lined with wooden book shelves, gets its name from two priceless globes created by the Venetian cartographer Vincenzo Maria Coronelli. The vault, decorated by Giovannino Galliari in the 1700s, depicts tools used in mechanics, mathematics, geography, astronomy and other sciences.
The reading room can be accessed from the Map Room through double doors surmounted by portraits of Pythagoras and Euclid. The room’s bookshelves conserve the oldest volumes in the library’s collection. The ceiling is frescoed with subjects inspired by ornithology: owls, emus, peacocks and pelicans.
The last room, long and narrow, houses the library’s oldest filing system, the most important periodicals published by the Academy, dictionaries and encyclopaedias.
Film Commission Torino Piemonte
Via Cagliari 42 — 10153 Torino
Phone: +39 011 2379201
Fax: +39 011 2379298
Email: info@fctp.it
