Founded by the Jesuit from Trapani Leonardo Ximenes in 1756, it is still active today in the same premises where it was born, on the top floor of the Convent of the Scolopi Fathers known as San Giovannino in Florence.

The premises contain some important paintings from the Florentine sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, albeit in poorly valued locations, near the stairwell.

Among these are Giovanni Bizzelli's Sant'Elena (1587), San Girolamo supported by an angel, among the masterpieces of Jacopo Ligozzi, and an Immaculate Conception by Francesco Curradi.

[1] The building also incorporates the ancient Torre dei Rondinelli, at the top of which the Observatory tower has been obtained, with the typical dome, clearly visible from the whole city.

The Cecchi Collection preserves the seismographs built and used in the observatory starting from 1873, constituting a sort of guide to the history of seismology.