The origin of the museum could be traced back to the end of the 18th century during the age of enlightenment era, when empress Maria Theresa of Austria ordered the reformation of the university teachings and structures.

In 1932, the museum was founded to accommodate the items which were kept in the Palazzo Botta Adorno, on the exhibition on the first anniversary of the death of Antonio Scarpa, founder of the Anatomical School of Pavia.

[2] The current museum was officially opened in 1936 and gradually expanded over the years, thanks to donations from the heirs of Golgi,[3] which included his manuscripts, notes for lectures and especially, the original certificate of the Nobel Prize he won in 1906.

In addition to anatomical preparations, physics and surgical instruments as well as documents related to the history of the university,[4] the museum also has many memorabilia which are not normally shown to the public due to space constraints.

These items — documents and writings such as the autographs of Volta, Foscolo, Monti, Spallanzani, Moscati, Golgi, Oehl, Brugnatelli, Romagnosi, Cairoli and many others who had contributed to the history of the university — are displayed on rotation or by request.

Unfortunately, some of these instruments were either destroyed in the fire at the exhibition pavilion in 1899 at Como, during the centennial celebration of the collection or were lost in removals over the years, the last of which was due to the Second World War.

Some of these instruments include solar microscope,[10] a Silbermann device, a Foucault pendulum, a Thomson ammeter, a Regnault hypsometer as well an Atwood machine, various coils, resistors, capacitors, electromagnets, electrometers, spectrometers, photometers, sextants, theodolites and rings.

Specimens, handwritten documents and drawings related to his work on the pathological changes in the arteries after ligation or compressions —which became the origin of vascular surgery, are part of this collection.

[15] Among them are the original certificate of his Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1906, the microscopy slides from his infamous black reaction[16] which allowed visualization of neurons for the first time and the two microscopes which he used to study them.

Other memorabilia of interest include handwritten documents and illustrations of cells, kidneys, his studies on malaria as well as some manuscripts and notes which he used for his general pathology lectures.

The collection also includes other documents and manuscripts related to Adelchi Negri's discovery of rabies and Carlo Forlanini's instruments for inducing artificial pneumothorax.

Other anatomical samples include the aneurysm that killed mathematician Vincenzo Brunacci in 1818 and the bladder of naturalist Lazzaro Spallanzani, who died of kidney cancer in 1799.

Other memorabilia include a number of fetal skeletons from post-natal deaths as well drawings, histological samples by Bartolomeo Panizza and a collection of surgery tools used by Giovanni Alessandro Brambilla, which were listed in his manuscript "Instrumentarium Chirurgicum Militare Austriacum".