Collections

The GB pertains to the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences with the aim of ensuring the safeguard and development of plant diversity across Sicily and the Mediterranean area through the off-site conservation of germplasm. Spontaneous as well as rare specimens of endangered species are being kept within the GB along with a special area devoted to phytogeographical and naturalistic studies.

UNICT owns a whole collection of juridical manuscripts of the 12th and 14th century that is stored on microfilm with an historical section devoted to legal studies currently based at the Faculty of Law.

The Collection of Antique Physics Instruments is based within the "Ettore Majorana" Department of Physics and Astronomy and comes as a result of a multiyear project involving the Ettore Majorana’s teaching staff and technicians who have been wholly committed to the restoration of antique instruments on display, bearing witness to the history of physics in Catania.

The Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences houses a collection of measuring instruments along with their respective mineropetrographic, geophysical and geochemical properties including those that have been used since the mid 19th century by various scholars from mineropetrographic and geophysical disciplines at the University of Catania.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A) houses the agrobiodiversity collection for teaching and research purposes, while preserving Sicilian species and ecotypes of agricultural interest at risk of erosion and yet promoting technological, historical, genetic, pomological and health studies

The entomological collection housed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A) includes a historical collection of insects, preserved by the Section of Applied Entomology, consisting of about 400 entomological boxes and a collection of drawings on cardboard that resulted in 200 flash cards about entomology or zoology in relation to agriculture, beekeeping, sericulture, and to the identification of useful and harmful arthropods

The austere busts of Mario Rapisardi and Luigi Capuana were the ancient ensign of the age-old Siculorum Gymnasium. They, who were distinguished academics, are painted inside and form part of UNICT’s art historical collection, along with some other valuable objects.