The Tribuna and the birth of the Museum

Construction of the Uffizi ended in 1565, however it wasn’t until the construction of the Tribuna, task assigned by Francesco I to the architect Bernardo Buontalenti and completed in 1586, that the first nucleus of the museum was formed.
This splendid room constitutes the heart of the Medici collection: inside, the eccentric grand duke, a lover of the arts of science and alchemy, arranged the best pieces of his collection, anything that was deemed most beautiful, rare and precious. Above all, anyone who asked permission was allowed to visit the Tribuna, but the selection process was very rigid.
So, this is the first kernel of the oldest museum in Europe. Naturally, the arrangement was quite different to the way we conceive museums today. Since it was a private collection, it reflected the tastes of the owner, and different types of objects were exhibited together without any particular order, as was customary at the time: art pieces and sculptures, anthropological collections, jewelry, scientific instruments and curios, all shared the same space. Later, the collection would be enriched with works coming from the Medici villas, from estates or from external private collections or those belonging to the family.