Officine Panerai

GALILEO'S ORIGINAL TELESCOPE

AT THE NOBEL MUSEUM IN STOCKHOLM

The exhibition "Galileo's Telescope - The Instrument that Changed the World", created by the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence and sponsored by Officine Panerai, is open from October 10th, 2009 to January 17th, 2010

STOCKHOLM - On the occasion of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, the Nobel Museum in Stockholm hosts the exhibition "Galileo's Telescope – The Instrument that Changed the World " conceived by the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo's first celestial discoveries. The exhibition, opening on October 10th, is adorned by the extraordinary display of one of the only two surviving telescopes made by Galileo and this unique occasion to discover one of the treasures of all time history of science is possible thanks to the financial support of Italian high-end watchmaker Officine Panerai, main sponsor of the exhibition.

Galileo's telescopes are housed in the Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence. The instrument on show in Stockholm is displayed for the first time outside Italy. The exhibition consists of six sections featuring beautifully crafted replicas of some of the instruments housed in the Museo di Storia della Scienza as well as important documentation and a significant selection of visual material, included extraordinary unpublished photographs taken through Galileo's telescope. Interactive models and multimedia animations help visitors in the understanding of optical and astronomical principles while an extraordinary "Jupiterium ", expressly conceived and realized by Officine Panerai for the exhibition, displays the movements of the Sun, of Jupiter and his moons through a unique, mechanical scale model.

Why is Galileo's Telescope so crucial in the history of science? In 1608, Galileo Galilei heard about a strange optical instrument made by some Dutch spectacle makers. It was a tube equipped with lenses at each end. The Tuscan scientist devoted himself to perfecting this instrument and in a few months he succeeded in making images sharper and increasing the magnification power to 30 times. In the autumn of 1609 Galileo turned his own perfected instrument towards the stars. With the magnified view of his telescope, already known celestial bodies appeared in new and greater detail. He was able to made exceptional discoveries as well. He saw the Milky Way consisting of countless stars, the uneven nature of the Moon's surface, the four satellites orbiting around Jupiter, sunspots, and Venus phases. Galileo immediately understood the tremendous weight of celestial discoveries he made. They provided observational evidence in favour of Nicolaus Copernicus's theory according to which the Earth rotated both on its own axis and around the Sun.

"The exhibition "Galileo´s Telescope – the instrument that changed the world" opens at the Nobel Museum October 10th. The exhibition will be shown until January 2010. During the exhibition we will be able to show one of the original telescopes of Galileo. That is as close as you get to a Mona Lisa in the history of science" says Olov Amelin, Head of Exhibitions at the Nobel Museum.

"The subtitle of the exhibition, The Instrument that Changed the World – says Paolo Galluzzi, Director of the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence – eloquently expresses the epoch-making effects brought about by Galileo's observations not only in the field of astronomy and more generally science, but also in the fields of philosophy, religion and anthropology. The consequences of that 'earthquake' profoundly marked the development of modern consciousness by disputing ancient and deep-rooted beliefs. None of this would have happened if a man of extraordinary intelligence had not transformed an object sold as a toy in Venice's narrow streets into a scientific instrument".

"We are immensely proud" – says Angelo Bonati, Officine Panerai CEO – "to sponsor this exhibition. We already displayed Galileo's Telescope at the Planetarium in Beijing and at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, and the incredible success we experienced confirms a very strong interest for the Italian genius worldwide".

The Stockholm venue of the exhibition "Galileo's Telescope - The Instrument that Changed the World" depends on the generosity of its current sponsors: Officine Panerai (main sponsor), Swedish National Space Board, Swedish Research Council and Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems.

GALILEO'S TELESCOPE: THE INSTRUMENT THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

The Exhibition

As with so many of the decisive discoveries in the history of scientific progress, that of the telescope arose from the observation of relatively common phenomena and objects of which only a brilliant mind can comprehend and develop the enormous potential. Something of this nature took place when in 1609 Galileo Galilei came across a tube closed at each end by a lens, by using which distant objects appeared closer. This was an optical instrument conceived by Dutch spectacle-makers that Galileo transformed in a few months, by increasing its magnification up to thirty times. Then, due to his insatiable scientific curiosity, he pointed that first telescope skyward giving birth to revolutionary astronomical discoveries.

The exhibition "Galileo's Telescope ", making use of a wealth of documents, scientific instruments, interactive models and multimedia animations, tells the story of early optics, the illuminating observations, and the principal consequences of the celestial discoveries made by Galileo thanks to his telescope. The six sections comprising the exhibition are curated by historian of astronomy Giorgio Strano with the assistance of a scientific committee made up of historians of science and technology, physicists, mathematicians and astronomers that includes Filippo Camerota, Paolo Del Santo, Sven Dupré, Paolo Galluzzi, Pier Andrea Mandò, Giuseppe Molesini, Francesco Palla, Albert Van Helden and Marco Verità. Additional contributions to the scientific development of the project were made by the Italian Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), the Italian Institute of Applied Optics (INOA), the Astrophysics Observatory of Arcetri and the Experimental Glass Laboratory of Murano.

The first section of the exhibition, "Prehistory of the telescope", covers the long period preceding Galileo's invention and illustrates how, since Antiquity to the Renaissance, the laws of reflection and refraction were known through the study of metal mirrors and glass disks. Also the optical components for making the telescope were present. However, they were never taken beyond the design of spectacles or burning glasses. The production of glass and the working of reflective and refractive surfaces were still of too poor a quality for the manufacture of more complex instruments.

Taking its cue from the first optical instruments made by three Dutch spectacle-makers in 1608, the second section , "Galileo's telescope", focuses on the studies and remarkable modifications which Galileo Galilei made to those rudimentary instruments arriving, a year later, at the actual invention of the telescope, perhaps the most famous of Galileo's scientific instruments. Prior telescopes had a magnification of only 2 to 3 times; Galileo perfected his own handmade lenses until his telescope magnified more than 30 times, allowing the first close-up sightings of the heavens. With his telescope, he was able to look at the Moon, discover four satellites of Jupiter, observe the phases of Venus, and discover sunspots. His discoveries provided observational evidence of the Copernican systems, which states that all the planets, including the Earth, revolve around the Sun. Prior to the Copernican system, it was held that the universe was geocentric, meaning that all the planets, including the Sun, revolved around the Earth.

Replica instruments, facsimiles of handwritten and printed testimonies to the historic astronomical observations made between 1609 and 1611 grant direct access to Galileo's scientific laboratory and, through a comparison with other rare testimonies from the same era, what emerges is their true genius. The Stockholm exhibition is adorned by the extraordinary display of one of the only two surviving telescopes made by Galileo . These are usually housed in the Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence and have been very rarely displayed outside Italy. This is a unique occasion to discover one of the treasures of all time history of science.

The National Institute of Applied Optics and the National Institute of Nuclear Physics have performed, specifically for this exhibition, a series of scientific studies on the made lenses by Galileo and by the most important Italian manufacturers from the first half of the seventeenth century. The third section of the exhibition, "The quality of Galileo's lenses", shows the results of these studies, which together with the interpretative consultancy of the Experimental Glass Laboratory of Murano have demonstrated the common factors between the white and transparent glass used in various crafted products and that used in the lenses of the first telescopes.

Thanks to the creation of faithful optical replicas of the most important of Galileo's two telescopes mounted onto the "Amici Telescope" at the Astrophysics Observatory of Arcetri, Galileo's astronomical observations have been repeated and the results are presented in the fourth section , "Observing with Galileo's telescope". Use is made of interactive models and replicas, enabling visitors to better understand what it meant to observe the sky through the first telescopes in history and to find out about the special accessories Galileo used in the course of his work, including the micrometer and the helioscope, respectively used to study Jupiter's satellites and to draw sunspots.

In the fifth section , "From Galileo to Newton", the history of optics goes beyond Galileo with an examination of the new model of telescope designed by Johann Kepler on a purely theoretical bases. In particular, this section outlines the material reason that delayed the diffusion of the Keplerian telescope. Indeed, the production of this new model, conceived by Kepler in 1611, began to affirm its superiority only from around 1635 and to the merit of Italian opticians. However, the phenomenon of so-called "chromatic aberration" spurred the makers to create particularly cumbersome instruments such as extra-long or aerial telescopes. They finally disappeared with the conception of the reflecting telescope, the creation of which is credited to Isaac Newton.

The sixth section of the exhibition, "The telescope, measurement of time and longitude", recounts what happened immediately following the celebrated astronomical observations and the fundamental contribution made by Galileo to solving the problem of the measurement of time. Galileo had a marked sense of the practical which directed him towards the tangible applications of his discoveries, which resulted in their multiplication and development in all their intrinsic possibilities. Following the discovery of the satellites of Jupiter and the calculation of their period of revolution, Galileo thought about using them as a cosmic clock to be consulted from any part of the globe. This enabled him to solve the age-old problem of calculating longitude at sea, and to aid telescopic observation by sailors he designed a futuristic helmet, the celatone, on which a spyglass is mounted. Nevertheless, his research did not end here and the ambition for ever greater precision of calculation, made problematic by atmospheric conditions and by the uncertainties of navigation, led Galileo to a study of new instruments that would perfect the measurement of time. Beginning in 1602, Galileo dedicated his studies to the observation of pendulum motion, noting that the oscillations remained of identical duration. This was the law of isochronism – the discovery, absolutely original in the annals of history, of a mathematical rule inherent in a phenomenon of terrestrial physics.

The invention of the telescope and the astronomical observations deriving from it left on hold the studies relating to the measurement of time up to the years in which Galileo concentrated his research on the calculation of longitude. As the final section of the exhibition illustrates, between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a debate raged between the supporters of astronomical methods and mechanical methods in the determination of longitude. In short, only careful reflection regarding Galileo's discovery of isochronism led to the creation of mechanical clocks able to work with precision even during long sea voyages. This success is illustrated by the various types of clock that were created in a relatively brief span of time: from the table clocks of the sixteenth century to the pendulum time devices designed by Galileo, from Christiaan Huygens' cycloidal pendulum clock to John Harrison's first marine chronometers.

The overall path mapped out by the exhibition begins with the sky and reaches the Earth. Cross-referencing celestial observations, astronomical calculations and terrestrial measurements, Galileo's telescope tells the story of how events and cosmic time lie at the origin of time as it is used in concrete terms by man. A demonstration of how the brilliant mind of the grand old man of Arcetri was able to grasp the connection between universal events and human necessities. A burst of scientific genius and love for mankind, which 400 years later continues to enjoy the fruits of his discoveries.

OFFICINE PANERAI EXHIBITED PIECES

Officine Panerai is proud to display three pieces in the part of the exhibition dedicated to The Telescope, measurement of time and longitude , that recounts what happened immediately following the celebrated astronomical observations and the fundamental contribution made by Galileo to solving the problem of the measurement of time.

Panerai Jupiterium

Presented for the first time ever at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm, during installation of the exhibition Galileo's Telescope - The Instrument that Changed the World , the Panerai Jupiterium, conceived and produced by Officine Panerai, is a mechanical instrument showing the positions of the stars, the Sun, the Moon and Jupiter according to the observer's point of view on the Earth.

Considering the particular position of the observer on the Earth, thus, the Panerai Jupiterium has the Earth at its centre with the other celestial bodies moving around it. Jupiter's system comprises the so-called "Medicean Planets" , namely the planet's four main satellites, observed for the first time by Galileo Galilei through his telescope and today known as Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Discovery of the Medicean Planets was announced for the first time by Galileo in his Sidereus Nuncius , published in March 1610, and it had revolutionary consequences on the history of modern thought. The first empirical confirmation of the existence of stars that rotate around a celestial body other than the Earth in fact represented fundamental support for Copernicus' heliocentric theory.

Analysis of the periods and determination of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites also allowed Galileo to draw up tables for mean motions that provided information helpful for calculating longitudes at sea, an age-old critical problem for sailors before more modern sophisticated instruments like the marine chronograph were invented.

The Jupiterium mechanism has a titanium base and is powered by a perpetual calendar watch, with a 40-day power reserve. The perpetual calendar is one of the most sophisticated applications in toplevel watchmaking, as it determines the exact date, day, month and year without any need for manual regulation, even in leap years.

Produced in only three examples, the Panerai Jupiterium comprises a square wooden base that supports a glass sphere holding the Earth and planets on titanium arms. The constellations of the zodiac are picked out in superluminova on the surface of the sphere, shown as they can be seen from Earth's hemispheres.

Officine Panerai, Marine Chronometer

Massive teak wood box

Brushed steel case with polished edges

Polished steel bezel

Panerai OP XX calibre

52-hour power reserve

Officine Panerai, Luminor - 1950s

In addition, this model was characterized by the Luminor, the tritium-base substance to provide luminescence to the numbers, indices and hands.

Steel case, diameter 47 mm

Polished steel bezel

Black dial

Hand wound mechanical movement, Angelus

base, calibre 240, 16 lignes

8-day power reserve

PAOLO GALLUZZI

Director of the Istituto e Museo Nazionale di Storia della Scienza (Florence, Italy)

In 2003 he was awarded by the President of the Italian Republic the Gold Medal for his outstanding contribution to the promotion of scientific heritage and to research in the humanities. In 2005 he was decorated as Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. He was member from 1998 to 2001 of the Advisory Group of the Information Society Technology Program of the European Commission. He is also permanent member (from 1997) of the Information Society Forum of the European Commission.

His numerous publications focus on the activity of the scientists and engineers of the Renaissance (Leonardo and thereabouts), on several aspects of science during the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution, on scientific terminology, on the activities of Galileo and his school, on the history of the European scientific academies and on the birth and history of the historiography of science. He has devoted studies to the history of scientific instrumentation, of scientific museums, and of scientific heritage. He directed the Storia della Scienza Einaudi and conceived and directed the "Biblioteca della Scienza Italiana", published by the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, an editorial series, of which 36 volumes have so far been published. He has planned and directed many exhibitions on the history of science presented both in Italy and abroad.

Since 1994 he has been a full professor of the History of Science at the University of Florence. He has had visiting teaching stints at Harvard, Princeton, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Hamburg, the Centre Koyré, at the Ecole des Haute Etudes, Paris and at New York University as well as in many other universities and research centres both in Italy and abroad. He was invited twice as "Volterra Scholar" to spend a research period at the Dibner Institute, at Cambridge, Mass.

Since 1999 he has acted as Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin. In 2001 he was nominated Member of the Advisory Board of the Deutsches Museum, Münich. He is member of the Royal Academy of Science, Stockholm and of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. He is socio of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.

During the last 15 years, he has been involved in the preparation of multimedia applications, conceived as tools to promote research, to improve access to important sources for the history of science and techniques and to facilitate the public understanding of crucial issues of the history of science and technology and of cultural and scientific heritage.

GIORGIO STRANO

Curator of the collections of the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Ph D

In 1999, with a thesis entitled Il catalogo stellare dell'Almagesto e il cielo antico (The star path of the Almagest and the sky in ancient times), he obtains a degree in History of Science from Florence University. At the same time, he began collaborating with the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence with the task of designing multimedia animations and mechanical planetariums to illustrate ancient cosmological theories. In 2001, he joined the teaching staff of the Planetarium of the Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica in Florence.

In 2003, Strano received a Ph.D. with a dissertation entitled Claudio Tolomeo e Tycho Brahe: tradizione e innovazione negli strumenti per l'osservazione astronomica (Claudio Tolomeo and Tycho Brahe: tradition and innovation of instruments for astronomical observations). Soon after he was appointed Curator of the Collections of the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza. Since 2005, he has been one of the five members of the Museum Services Work Team of the National Institute for Astrophysics (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica - INAF) responsible for the conservation, study and promotion of the historical heritage of Italian Astronomical Observatories.

Over the past ten years he has published more than 40 researches and articles, with a focus on the problems of ancient astronomy, on astronomical instruments and, more generally, on the conservation of scientific instruments. He is also General Editor of Scientific Instruments and Collections, a publication aimed at spreading awareness of the best studies presented to the Scientific Instrument Commission of the International Union for History and Philosophy of Science.

He has contributed to numerous exhibitions, among which are: Scienziati a Corte: l'arte della sperimentazione nell'Accademia galileiana del Cimento (curator: P. Galluzzi; Florence 2001); Vitrum (curators: M. Beretta and G. Di Pasquale; Florence 2004, Paris 2006); Machina Mundi: Images and Measures of the Cosmos from Copernicus to Newton (curators: P. Del Santo and G. Strano; Florence 2004, Landskrona 2005, Woolstorpe Manor 2005, Frombork 2005, Prague 2005-2006, Cluj-Napoca 2006, Bucharest 2006); Galileo: Immagini dell'universo dall'antichità al telescopio (curator: P. Galluzzi; Florence 2009) and Astrum 2009: Astronomia e Strumenti (curator I. Chinnici; Rome 2009-2010).

SVANTE LINDQVIST

Director of the Nobel Museum, Professor, Ph D

Previously he held a chair as Professor of History of Technology at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, and he was Chairman of its Department for History of Science and Technology since 1989. He has a M.Sc.Eng. (Physics) from the Royal Institute of Technology (1977) and a Ph.D. in History of Science and Ideas from Uppsala University (1984). He was a Visiting Scholar in the Office for History of Science and Technology at the University of California, Berkeley, during the academic year 1986–1987, and a Visiting Professor in the Department for History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania during the fall semester of 1992. During the academic year 1995–96, he was an Overseas Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge. In the fall of 2003 he was a Visiting Professor in the STS Program at MIT.

His dissertation, Technology on Trial: The Introduction of Steam Power Technology into Sweden, 1715–1736, Uppsala Studies in History of Science, 1 (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1984), was awarded three national prizes, including the Letterstedt Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1985. Among his other other publications is a volume edited in 1993, Center on the Periphery: Historical Aspects of 20th-Century Swedish Physics (Canton, Mass.: Science History Publications, 1993) and another one in 2000, Museums of Modern Science, Nobel Symposium 112. In 2008, he was a co-editor of Research and Museums: Proceedings of An International Symposium in Stockholm 22–25 May 2007, as well as of Aurora Torealis: Studies in the History of Science and Ideas in Honor of Tore Frängsmyr.

He has been a member of the Kuratorium (1992-2008) and the Wissenschaftlichen Beirats (1998-2008) of the Deutsches Museum, München. During the period 1991—1999, he was on the Advisory Committee for the history project at the European Space Agency (ESA), Paris, and in 1996-2004 a member of the Corporation Visiting Committee for the Humanities at MIT, Cambridge, Mass. Since 2008, he has been a member of the International Advisory Board of the Medical Museion in Copenhagen.

OLOV AMELIN

Head of Exhibitions of the Nobel Museum, Senior Curator, Ph D

He has a Ph. D. in History of Science and Ideas from Uppsala University (1999).

His thesis The reverse of the Medal: The mathematical Instrument Maker Daniel Ekström and his Followers in 18th Century Sweden deals with the growth of Scientific instrument making in Sweden. Several articles in this field has been published by Amelin in different publications. Also articles in the field of Museology has been published by him as "Det frusna ögonblickets teater in" Museer i fortid og nåtid, Essays i museumskunnskap ed. Arne Bugge Amundsen, Bjarne Rogan & Margarethe C. Stang, Oslo 2003.

Among the exhibitions Amelin has curated are: Eloteket (National Museum of Science and Technology 1989), permanent Science History exhibition at the Observatory Museum (1991), permanent exhibition on the History of Uppsala University (Museum Gustavianum, 1997), The Mediterranean and the Nile Valley (Museum Gustavianum, 1998), Cultures of Creativity, The Centennial Exhibition of the Nobel Prize (The Nobel Museum, 2001), Churchill, Painter and Writer (The Nobel Museum, 2006), Alfred Nobel, Networks of Innovation (The Nobel Museum, 2008).

ISTITUTO E MUSEO DI STORIA DELLA SCIENZA

Opening soon as Museo Galileo

The Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza in Florence is one of the foremost international institutions in the history of science. An important museum housing unique historical collections of scientific instruments is joined together a renowned research institute.

Founded in 1927, the Museum is heir to a five century-long tradition of scientific collecting, which has its origins in the central importance assigned to scientists and scientific instruments by the Medici and Lorraine families. The Institute has been continuously involved in research into topics connected with the history of science and technology as well as the history of scientific instruments, collections and museums. In the last twenty years it has also published a biannual journal on the History of Science, Nuncius. Annali di Storia della Scienza. The Institute publishes also Galilaeana, a journal entirely devoted to Galileo studies, and numerous specialized publications. It has organized a number of international workshops and conferences, promoted innovative research, held specialized courses for young researchers and conceived and produced an outstanding series of exhibitions, presented in the most important cities in the world.

At the beginning of 2010, in the midst of the Galilean celebrations, the renovated Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza will re-open under the name of Museo Galileo. Istituto di Storia della Scienza . This name has been chosen not only for the Tuscan scientist's central role in founding modern science but also because the Florentine institution is home to Galileo's only original instruments that have come down to us. The new permanent exhibition, starting from a radical transformation of the premises now fully equipped with the most advanced facilities, will be characterized by the use of information technology that will allow visitors an in-depth exploration of the museum's treasures. Information system resources will be available to the public on dedicated stations as well as on portable audio-visual devices especially designed for this purpose.

This final intervention will complete the renovation works launched in the early 1990s and designed to transform the Florentine Institution into an advanced research centre which promotes publications, journals and exhibitions, is equipped with a specialized library rich in antique and rare books, modern editions and digital resources, a multimedia department devoted to the exploitation of the museum collections, as well as an iconographic archive and a restoration workshop. Extensive educational activities are also offered. Upon completion of the new permanent exhibition, all museum communication tools will be updated, including catalogues, short guides, DVD and online multimedia catalogues. Innovative educational programs will also be developed.

The new exhibition will highlight the outstanding phenomenon of scientific collecting by the Medici and Lorraine families. The Medicean collection will be displayed on the first floor. Special sections will be devoted to astronomy, cartography and globes, nautical, military and surveying instruments, as well as to the instruments of Galileo, the Galilean school and the Accademia del Cimento. The second floor will house the Lorraine collection, which is organized in sections dealing with the theatre of science, the meteorological-astronomical observatory, didactic instruments and measuring devices as well as with the most important scientists and instrument makers. This ambitious project also includes a large restoration campaign. In particular, several important pieces will be brought back to their original splendour. Among these are the spectacular armillary sphere created by Antonio Santucci for Ferdinand I de' Medici between 1588 and 1593 and the four large globes made at the end of the 17th century by Vincenzo Coronelli, who was cartographer and cosmographer for the Republic of Venice.

For further information: www.imss.fi.it

THE NOBEL MUSEUM

The first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901. Since then, nearly 800 people have been honoured for their work in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economics. In 2001 the Nobel Foundation wanted to commemorate the centenary of the Nobel Prize with a Centennial Exhibition.

The Nobel Museum in Stockholm opened in the old Stock Exchange building in the Old Town in 2001 with the Centennial Exhibition "Cultures of Creativity". Since the opening in 2001 the attendance has grown by 15–20,000 visitors per year, and during 2008 the museum had more than 144,000 visitors, many of whom were students at all levels.

The Nobel Museum does not – contrary to what many believe – receive any financial support from the Nobel Foundation. The statutes of the foundation and the will of Alfred Nobel only allow Nobel's endowment to be used for the prizes themselves and for the evaluation work of the prize-awarding institutions. Thus the Nobel Museum is totally externally funded, and receives funds from the Swedish government (kultur-och utbildningsdepartementen) and the City of Stockholm (Stockholms stad) as well as from corporate sponsors and private foundations.

"Cultures of Creativity"

Using individuals and milieus from the last 100 years as examples, the Centennial Exhibition "Cultures of Creativity" sheds light on the following questions: What is creativity, and how can it best be promoted? What is more important in the creative process: individual creativity or the milieu in which the work is done? The exhibition offers no answers, but gives visitors occasion to ponder these questions for themselves. Some of the features that characterize individual creativity include thinking along new paths, daring to question established theories, and combining insights from different fields in new ways. These features are illustrated in the exhibition by, for example, the discoveries of physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and the writings of Selma Lagerlöf.

Creative milieus often provide informal meeting grounds for spontaneous and unplanned discussion. This was true in Paris of the 1920s with all its cafés, where future Nobel Prize Laureates such as Ernest Hemingway and Samuel Beckett worked, but it also applies in the present day to the cafeteria at CERN or the colleges in Cambridge.

32 Nobel Prize Laureates and their creative work are presented in movie theaters and artefact theaters, along with 10 milieus that have been inspirational to creativity. The Centennial Exhibition also provides an account of the Nobel Prize over the last century. Better known Nobel Prizes are discussed against a backdrop of world events. Nobel Prizes that have sparked controversy in their time, such as the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to German journalist Carl von Ossietzky in 1935, are also discussed.

The awarding of Prizes in the Concert Hall and the festivities at the City Hall are just the tip of the iceberg with regard to the Nobel system. The Centennial Exhibition presents this unique system, with its nominations from around the world and a multitude of expert opinions – an enterprise that has been carried on continuously within the various Nobel committees for one hundred years.

Alfred Nobel's remarkable legacy underlies the entire Nobel system. Who was he, and why was he willing to endow an international prize with his entire fortune? Alfred Nobel - idealist, inventor, entrepreneur and citizen of the world - is presented in the exhibition, along with the international perspective that characterized his life and legacy.

The Research Department

The Nobelmuseum's Research Department consists of nine researchers. Their projects deal with historical, cultural and social aspects of modern science, medicine, peace, literature and economy, as well as Alfred Nobel and his time, Nobel Laureates and their works, and museology.

The Research Department organizes a series of multi-disciplinary colloquia. This is a forum for Swedish and international scholars to present and discuss new research. Every spring, the Department invites an international scholar of excellence to give the annual Neale Wheeler Watson lecture. The Research Department also organizes conferences and symposiums and publishes two series of publications: Nobel Museum Archives and Nobel Museum Occasional Papers.

The Nobel Museum research library is located in the newly renovated basement of the old Stock Exchange building. It is a reference library available to the museum staff and guest scholars.

OFFICINE PANERAI

Each Panerai watch is as unique as the heritage it embodies. A heritage that has its beginnings in the very cradle of the Renaissance – Florence - where Giuseppe Panerai, a businessman, craftsman and innovator, opened the city's first watchmaker's shop in 1860.

A heritage that links every single detail of a Panerai watch to the purpose it was designed and made to fulfil. A tradition which has kept a close eye on the future, through ongoing research for technical excellence and which sets aside every new Officine Panerai collection.

Combining Italian design and Swiss horological perfection, each year Officine Panerai re-interprets its 150-year-long passion - the creation of high precision timepieces with a strong identity rooted in distinction, aesthetics and function.

PANERAI HISTORIA

1860

Giovanni Panerai opens a watchmaker's shop in Florence: a store which is also a workshop, not to mention the city's first watch-making school. Initially located on Ponte delle Grazie, the "Orologeria Svizzera", as it was called, later moves to its current premises, inside the Palazzo Arcivescovile in Piazza San Giovanni.

1916

Guido Panerai registers the first of many patents to mark Panerai's long history in innovation. To meet the military requirement of the Royal Italian Navy, for whom it has already been a supplier for a few years, Panerai creates Radiomir, a radium-based powder for making sighting instruments and dials luminous.

1936

On the eve of the Second World War, the instruments developed by Panerai for the Royal Italian Navy take on an even more strategic role. The prototype of the Radiomir watch is created for the underwater exploits of the Command of the First Submarine Corp, with many of the features which still distinguish it today: a large steel cushion-shaped case (47 mm), luminous numerals and markers, wire loop strap attachments welded to the case, a Rolex hand-wound mechanical movement, a wide water-resistant strap, long enough to be fastened over the diving suit.

1938-1949

The Radiomir watch is subjected to a series of innovations aimed at improving its performance: the new sandwich dial is made more luminous and easier to read; the strap attachments become more resistant and are made from the case itself; and the distinctive lever bridge device is invented, secured with screws to protect the crown. Thanks to these innovations making it more resistant and water tight, the new Panerai watch becomes the first underwater model (to depths of 200m) in the history of horology.

At the same time, radioactive Radiomir is replaced by Luminor, isotope of the tritium-based hydrogen, patented by Panerai for the first time in Italy in 1949.

1956

Panerai develops the "Egyptian" for the Egyptian Navy, an underwater watch of exceptional size and solidity, fitted with a marked bezel for calculating immersion times. In the same year the patent is registered for the crown-protecting bridge which becomes the trademark of the Luminor models.

1972

Giuseppe Panerai, son of Guido, dies and the family business, along with its position as supplier to the Italian Navy still covered by military secret, is handed over to the management of engineer Dino Zei, who creates the "Officine Panerai" trademark.

1993

The first civilian collection by Officine Panerai: three limited edition models inspired by those created for Second World War military operations but made according to the highest modern technical standards.

1997

Officine Panerai is acquired by the Richemont Group (then Vendome), which launches the brand on the international market the following year.

2002

Opening of the Officine Panerai Manufacture in Neuchatel, Switzerland.

2002-2009

Officine Panerai consolidates its international presence and creates eight new calibres entirely developed and manufactured in-house.

OFFICINE PANERAI TODAY

The Panerai trademark is a combination of the brand's tradition, Italian design and fine Swiss craftsmanship. This synergy is renewed each year through new models expressing authenticity, heroism, love of the sea and of nature, and quality and simplicity, these are the hallmarks of Officine Panerai today.

Every Panerai watch is numbered and forms part of one of three collections: the "Historic" collection of hand-wound watches; the "Contemporary" collection of automatic watches inspired by historic models but equipped with more sophisticated features, and the "Manifattura" watch collection, with movements designed, made and assembled exclusively in-house and which express the heights of Officine Panerai's horological mastery.

Each year Officine Panerai also pays a special tribute to a particular time or event in its history which embodies its brand value, by creating special limited edition models.

Panerai watches are sold exclusively through a select international network of authorised retailers and in the Panerai boutiques in Firenze and Portofino, Madrid, Beverly Hills and New York, Buenos Aires, Doha and Dubai, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo.