On 8 March 1860, the single chair of Natural Sciences of the Bolognese University was divided into three chairs of Mineralogy, Geology and Zoology and on 5 December, the Sienese Prof. Luigi Bombicci Porta , at the age of 27, was appointed full professor of Mineralogy. On January 30, 1862, the Natural History Cabinet of the Institute of Sciences was in turn divided into the sections of Mineralogy, Geology and Zoology and Bombicci took over the direction of the Museum of Mineralogy in the Palazzo Poggi .

At the beginning the Museum was able to dispose of unsuitable rooms so Bombicci 's tireless work was directed on the one hand to increasing the collections, from about nine thousand specimens of minerals and rocks in 1862 to about forty-eight thousand specimens in 1901, on the other. looking for ever larger spaces. The current headquarters of the Luigi Bombicci Mineralogy Collection Museum occupies the bright upper floor of the imposing new building wanted by Bombicci for the Institute and Museum of Mineralogy and completed in 1907, four years after his death.

Today the museum occupies an area of 850 m² with over 10 000 mineral samples divided into various thematic collections including the section dedicated to the geo-mineralogical aspects of the Bolognese territory , 600 ancient marbles, ambers and 150 fragments of meteorites including the Renazzo carbonaceous chondrite.

The museum also houses numerous ancient scientific instruments.