Museum of Precinema

He was also the benefactor of Padua responsible for transforming the marshy wasteland of Prato della Valle into a monumental piazza and the largest square in Italy.

His friend Giacomo Casanova was once a guest at the Palazzo Angeli, and it was from the viewpoint of the building's windows that Canaletto etched his panoramic view of the Prato in the mid-eighteenth century using a camera obscura.

[1] The Collezione Minici Zotti is a private collection of objects relating to the history of precinema, such as optical devices and other early visual media that eventually led to the birth of cinema.

The principal subject is the magic lantern - an antique projection device used to entertain and educate audiences before the invention of the cinematograph.

[3] A particularly rare acquisition on the part of the Museum is a magic lantern dating from around 1790 from the Medici Villa at Poggio a Caiano, a temporary residence of the Lorena, Grand Dukes of Tuscany.

The Palazzo Angeli, that houses the Museum of Precinema. The entrance to the Museum is under the right hand arch at the bottom of the building.
The Palazzo Angeli, that houses the Museum of Precinema.
Two glass cabinets containing magic lanterns. On the left a bi-unial magic lantern by W.Tyler is displayed. The right-hand cabinet contains the J. H. Steward tri-unial mahogany magic lanterns with brass lenses.
The W.Tyler bi-unial and the J.H.Steward tri-unial mahogany magic lantern (both c. 1880 ).
Inside the Museum of Precinema. Glass magic lantern slides and optical toys for early animation are displayed behind glass, and there are two reproduction stereoscopes in the background.
Magic lantern slides and optical toys exhibited inside the Museum of Precinema.