Description of the attraction
The Roberto Papi Museum in Salerno has great historical and cultural significance in the history of the city and is directly related to the famous medical school of Scuola Medica Salernitana. A visit to it will perfectly fit into any tourist route, which usually consists of visiting the numerous churches, palaces and other museums of the city. It is here that you can see a collection of medical instruments from the 17-18th centuries and get acquainted with the history of the development of surgery.
Mario and Ferdinando Papi, respectively, the father and brother of Roberto, whose name the museum bears, once donated to the municipality of Salerno a collection of ancient surgical instruments, some of which are very rare. This collection is now exhibited on two floors in eleven rooms in a historic building - Palazzo Galdieri. The uniqueness of this museum lies in the meticulousness and attention to detail with which unique exhibits dating from the 17th-20th centuries were collected and exhibited.
Roberto Papi himself, who was born in Rome, devoted his whole life to collecting rare things like Mathieu's trunk from a warship of the late 18th century or an oral hygiene kit with gold jewelry from the time of the Empire, as well as many other tools. Today, they are all kept in the museum in special boxes created by local graphic designer Gelsomino d'Ambrosio. In order to arouse even greater interest among museum visitors and recreate the atmosphere of the past, many exhibition halls of the museum are furnished with antique furniture or reproduce scenes from the medical life of bygone centuries. Here you can see a nurse from a military camp during the First World War, a 16th century pharmacy, a dentist's office, etc. On the ground floor there is a shop selling medicinal herbs.
As mentioned above, the Roberto Papi Museum is located in the Palazzo Galdieri building on Via Trotula de Ruggiero. The street is named after a noble resident of Salerno of the 11th century, who was at the court of the Lombard ruler Guaymario IV and was the first female doctor. She became famous as the author of a treatise on gynecology and the author of the first book on cosmetics. Trotula also made several scientific discoveries in the field of obstetrics and sexual dysfunctions. A street named after her leads from Palazzo Galdieri to the Gardens of Minerva.
