In the years immediately following Italy’s unification in 1861, Quintino Sella and Felice Giordano began planning the creation of the Geological Map of Italy, defining also the regulatory framework for the organization of Italian territory survey campaigns and the systematic collection of animal and plant fossils, rocks and minerals. The Royal Geological Committee was established in 1867 in Florence, the capital of the Kingdom of Italy at the time, with the task of directing the work for the plotting of the Geological Map of Italy in 1:100,000 scale and the related assessment of the new nation’s mineral reserves, which began with the collection of samples of materials found during survey activities. The Scientific Collections were gradually complemented by the Industrial Collections of rocks and minerals used for building and decoration.

In 1875, the Royal Geological Committee and the Geological Office were transferred to the Royal School of Engineering Applications at the former Convent of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, bringing collections of findings stored at different institutions in other Italian cities with them. Following the establishment of the Royal Geological Office, collections and activities moved once again to a new facility constructed for the purpose in Largo Santa Susanna that would host the Agrarian-Geological Museum inaugurated on May 3, 1885 in the presence of King Umberto I. This building would house the collections until 1995, the year in which the museum and the offices closed. The Geological Survey of Italy
and its collections were then sent to the Department of National Technical Services. Later, following mergers and the establishment of new research institutes, they were reincorporated into ISPRA in 2008.

Even though the collections could not be physically displayed in recent decades, they continued to be subjected to preservation, recovery, cataloging, digitization, and dissemination activities that deepened our knowledge of the territories from which each find came, the environments in which they were formed, and the use and significance they assumed over time.

The ISPRA Collections have been returning to the public eye since 2022 thanks to the progressive musealization at the Museum of Civilizations and ongoing research efforts by the international scientific community.