This exhibition was conceived on occasion of the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin. Its main aim is to commemorate the work of this important and eclectic English naturalist. He was promoter and member of important scientific expeditions, the most famous of which is the one to the Galapagos Islands. He proved a man of science and great intuition; he distinguished himself as a geologist, ornithologist, herpetologist, botanist and entomologist. We know he was also a skilled taxidermist and that a great part of the works he prepared or collected is kept at the British Museum in London. He was the author of many texts, “On The Origin of Species” surely being the most important one, published in London in 1859 and translated into many languages. The evolutionary theory of species explained in his innovative and monumental work became early the subject of animated discussions and criticism by the conservative scientific world, and also by religious organisations who looked at Darwin’s work with suspicion. Today we can say that he was the herald of a number of valid, research-based discoveries and deductions. The exhibition shows rare first Italian and foreign editions on his most important studies, and bibliographies on his life; it also exposes an important commemorative philatelic and numismatic collection. But the most important piece  is the Charles Darwin actual size replica, which shows him sitting at his work desk whilst examining some texts and bird skins. The replica shows a 70-year-old Darwin wearing English-style clothes typical of his time. The exhibition features some life-size replicas of the animals Darwin more carefully studied and examined: two Galapagos tortoise (Geochelone Nigra), shaped in such way that children may play with them and ride them, an adult specimen of Dodo (Raphus cucullatus) from Mauritius Islands extinct since1680, and an adult Great Auk (Pinguinus Impennis), a species that drew Darwin’s interest because of its peculiar frame. The exhibition also has several Plexiglas-covered posters, 70 cm x 100 cm, which can be exposed on metallic support frames, in compliance with safety regulations. Of no lesser importance are skulls, some authentic, some replicas, belonging to different evolutionary stages of hominids, which were central to the scientist’s most challenging studies and theories. Moreover, it is possible to expose two of his original taxidermic leather preparations of two ornithic species.