Museo Emanuele Barba, House museum in Gallipoli, Italy.
Museo Emanuele Barba occupies an early 19th-century palazzo on Via Antonietta De Pace, the main street of Gallipoli's historic centre. It is a positivist museum, gathering weapons, clothing, fossils, archaeological finds, and paintings under one roof. Its three sections are the museum, the Ex Sant'Angelo municipal library, and the Coppola Collection room.
The museum was founded in 1823 when Carmine Fontò donated his books to Gallipoli; further donations from convents followed. It was later entrusted to the naturalist Emanuele Barba, who established a zoological cabinet. In 2010 the section on fetal and animal pathologies, gathered by Barba to study genetic diseases such as Down syndrome, reopened after more than ten years.
The museum's name honours Emanuele Barba, the naturalist and teacher who set up its zoological cabinet. Its art collection includes about twenty canvases by Gallipoli painter Giovanni Andrea Coppola, donated by his heirs from 1982; his Still Life was shown in Paris in 2007. The Coppola room opened in 2012 in the lower rooms of Palazzo Balsamo, the town hall.
The museum occupies an early 19th-century palazzo on Via Antonietta De Pace, the central street of Gallipoli's historic centre, so it is reached on foot. The Coppola Collection room is separate, in the lower rooms of Palazzo Balsamo, the town hall. The Ex Sant'Angelo municipal library, the third section, is housed in the former confraternity church of Sant'Angelo.
The museum holds an unusual collection of preserved specimens related to disease and genetic conditions. This scientific section reflects the founder's interest in medical and natural history research.
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