Colored, transparent but also colorless, shiny, or opaque minerals. This is the Great Collection, a set of more than 21,000 finds of which only a part is on display in the Monumental Hall at the Museum. The oldest nucleus of the collection is represented by minerals collected by young scholars between 1789 and 1797 in the most important European mining districts to which, over time, minerals from all over the world have been added often true rarities for their beauty, size, and historical importance.  You will be conquered by the large and colorful fluorite crystals, the transparencies of the gypsum crystals, the wonderful tourmaline crystals, the red vermilion crystals of crocoite, the incredible iridescences of the Elba hematite and acicular antimonites made even more evident by the new LED lighting of the showcase.

Photo: Adamite, MapimÍ, Durango, Mexico.

The Arcangelo Scacchi room houses one of the largest and oldest collections of Vesuvian minerals in the world. A journey to discover the Vesuvius volcano and its products: rocks, lava, volcanic bombs but above all incredible minerals with perfect geometries and unexpected colors. Begun in 1844 starting from Vesuvian minerals already present in the museum, the collection has been greatly improved over time through purchases, donations and research campaigns on Vesuvius. Today it is formed of more than 14,000 finds, of which only 3,000 are on display, including rare species or reported for the first time at Vesuvius. The collection includes a little number of interesting lava medals, the oldest of which date back to 1804 and about 400 finds of fumarolic minerals, collected by Arcangelo Scacchi and the volcanologist Alessandro Malladra between 1870 and 1937 preserved in their original glass containers.

Photo: Cuspidina, Mt. Somma, Somma-Vesuvius Complex, Naples, Italy.

The artificial crystals collection, a very important collection for its historical and scientific value, was started in 1847 by the mineralogist Arcangelo Scacchi who donated it to the Museum in 1862.In the same year one hundred specimens were sent to the Universal Exhibition of London and, in 1867 to Paris one. At the end of nineteenth century the collection suffered several unlucky events which endangered its survival.  From 1997 the artificial crystals are again on display. The collection is formed by 332 samples stored in the original stoppered glass jars with ground glass neck broad base.  The glass jar has a rectangular label with  the name and the Scacchi’s note.  Many crystals show perfect forms and beautiful colors: the blue of copper compounds, the yellow crystals of potassium chromate and the green ammonium and iron sulfate.

Photo: Ammonium acid chromate.