Sensitive to the problems of scientific research, Ferdinando II (1610-1670) was the patron of Galileo (1564-1642) and other important scientists. In 1657, with his brother Leopoldo de' Medici (1617-1675), he founded the first European society of scientific nature, the Accademia del Cimento, with the scope of promoting the diffusion of Galileo's experimental method. The Academy, headquartered in Palazzo Pitti, engaged in research and experiments that produced a number of remarkably elegant instruments of singular shape.