Museo Della Fondazione Horne

The Museo della Fondazione Horne, or Horne Museum, at Via dei Benci 6, is an museum created from the collection of Herbert Percy Horne (1864-1916). A British man of many interests related to art, he eventually ended up in Italy with a collection of arts and handicrafts from the 14 and 15th century that form the core of this museum.

The museum costs 5 Euros to enter and is on two floors (the basement was not accessible and the top floor is inhabited by the custodian of the museum - the toscano word for this job is casiere). You can borrow a guide book from the ticket desk in the language of your choice that will help decipher what you are looking at because there is no signage in the museum. While it was fun to be in the house and the guides/docents were helpful (as usual we got our 5 Euro’s worth in plying them with questions to practice our Italian), the museum was a bit of a let-down. We felt it needed something to pull it all together. The Dante house has way less yet is more compelling because it tells the story of Florence. The Horne Museum’s collection while interesting will only appeal to those looking for specific works of art. In a city with so much art, it’s hard for lay people of the arts, like us, to appreciate what constitutes this collection. I felt the museum could have benefited by playing up the structure of the house more. It is a Renaissance styled house and there could be a lot more done to highlight this aspect.