Astronomico e Copernicano - Museo dell'Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma (Copernican Museum) is located at Viale del Parco Mellini 84 in Rome. Commissioned by the Polonica Institute, Dr Dominika Wronikowska carried out a preliminary search in 2023 for the collection of polonics that became part of the museum's exhibits between 1873 and 1893.

The museum was officially established in 1882, but its history dates back to the 400th anniversary celebrations of Copernicus' birth organised in Rome in 1873, with Artur Wołyński considered its founder. As Dominika Wronikowska mentions in her research report: 'according to information provided by Wołyński in the Tygodnik Ilustrowanym (1876, no. 44, p. 278), the Polish sculptor Wiktor Brodzki, who was active in Rome, donated a bust of Copernicus made by himself to add splendour to the celebration. The next Italian Minister of Enlightenment, Antonio Scialoja, commissioned Brodzki to forge the bust in marble with the intention of donating it to Rome's Sapienza University. The bust, made in 1873, thus became the de facto beginning of the Copernican Museum in Rome".

The museum has had a turbulent history and is currently not open to the public. It is planned to open in the near future, once the necessary work to ensure the safety of the collections and visitors has been completed. In connection with the Copernican celebrations, the museum was open to the public on several occasions in 2023 (curator-led tours on designated days, upon prior appointment booking). A similar formula of accessibility is envisaged in 2024.

Information about the objects donated to the Italian state by Volynsky in 1882 is given in the literature based on BREVI NOTIZIE 1887. The deed of donation shows that it included: 393 works in 497 volumes; 153 bound pamphlets in 22 volumes; 1 catalogue containing 595 folios; 101 silver and bronze medals and 1 gold medal; 107 silver coins; 18 marble, bronze, plaster and terracotta sculptures; 33 oil paintings and framed engravings; 17 mathematical and astronomical instruments; and 12 pieces of furniture and other objects.

Polonics identified through the search include a bust of Nicolaus Copernicus - a white marble sculpture by Wiktor Brodzki (signed on the back: 'V. BRODZKI/ 1873'), a bust of Nicolaus Copernicus by Teodor Rygier (signed T RYGIER 1878); Aleksander Lesser's oil painting The Last Moments of Nicolaus Copernicus; Henryk Siemiradzki's portrait of Nicolaus Copernicus; and a print of Astronomer Copernicus, or Conversation with God, based on a work by Jan Matejko. In addition, the exhibits include a facsimile of the introduction to Nicolaus Copernicus' work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium or a 17th-century print - the Decree of the Congregation for the Index of Prohibited Books of 5 March 1616 concerning Copernicus' work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, and many others.

The Polonica Institute is planning further activities to discover and document the collection of polonics held in the Astronomico e Copernicano - Museo dell'Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma.

Researcher: Dr Dominika Wronikowska