Objects, museums, places and universities. A story of the Napoleonic era

Abstract

The text examines how Napoleon’s reform of higher education in northern Italy reshaped administration, spaces, objects, and disciplines. In Bologna, the creation of the new university reconfigured an entire urban district, and the museums transferred to it reframed their objects as expressions of academic authority and disciplinary dynamism. Using extensive archival sources, the essay traces the emergence during the Napoleonic period of a distinct heritage culture—separate from experimental teaching—and the formation of the first technicians and curators independent of professors. The research shows that collections cannot be seen as static sets of objects preserved unchanged over time, as the Napoleonic era itself illustrates.