The wax models of the Pavia University history museum: a composite heritage between past and present

In 1929 the University of Pavia took part in the National History of Science Exhibition in Florence, the first exhibition in Italy related to the history of science and technology1. Italian cultural institutions, and several Universities, selected their ‘masterpieces’ for the occasion. Pavia participated by sending instruments, books, and specimens related to the history of one of the most ancient universities in Italy, founded in 1361. After the end of the exhibition the objects came back to Pavia, founding the first nucleus of the newly established Museum for the History of the University, officially opened in 1936 in the premises of the former Anatomy Museum, which was founded in the 18th century