Palazzo Poggi , seat of the rectorate of the University of Bologna, preserves some historical collections of the Institute of Sciences , founded in 1711 by Luigi Ferdinando Marsili.

The Aula Carducci , dedicated to the poet of the same name and where he taught, opens the museum of Palazzo Poggi : the original furnishings are preserved, as well as the bronze bust made in Rome by Bastianelli . Opposite is the Hall of Hercules , with the homonymous statue in boulder sculpted in 1730 by Angelo Piò, already located in the courtyard of the building.

Palazzo Poggi also houses the Historical Museum of the Study and the eighth centenary that   it preserves hundreds of documents from the 11th century, parchments, codices, incunabula, seals, degrees, statutes, donations, autographs, medals, rectoral insignia . Among the many memorabilia in the museum is the toga of Luigi Galvani . In addition, more than twenty oil portraits and about six hundred works distributed in the rooms of the rectorate and the library are exhibited. The collection includes works by Donato Creti, Lucia Casalini Torelli, Vandi, Zanotti, Keeble, Crescimbeni , as well as the marble bust of Eustachio Manfredi, sculpted by the famous anatomist Ercole Lelli.

The Aldrovandiano Museum in Palazzo Poggi preserves a small part of the huge patrimony that formed the collection donated to the Senate in 1603. The Aldrovandiano nucleus exhibits, in the eighteenth-century showcases, the splendid watercolor tables that accompany the volumes of 'Natural History' together with minerals , fossils, dried or stuffed animals, the famous 'Ranina Aldrovandi', preparations of vegetable or animal origin. The materials of the collections also include the correspondence and the works of the naturalist illustrated by a collection of woodcut tablets, a rich herbarium in sixteen volumes, four portraits, one of which by Palagi, and a mosaic portrait of Benedict XIV.

The Marsiliano Museum was inaugurated in Palazzo Poggi in 1714 and is divided into two rooms of the building and is largely made up of paper materials. Here are manuscripts and printed works that document Marsili's studies from classical antiquity to military art, from geography to ethnology to the natural sciences. Wooden models of fortifications are also visible, as well as bronze models of cannons and mortars from the military architecture rooms of the Institute of Sciences. From the same come geographical maps, manuscripts and drawings.

The Museum of ships and ancient geographical maps , organized inside Palazzo Poggi , presents ten very rare models of various boats, galleons, warships made from the sixteenth century to the century. XVIII, including Le Royal Louis, Le Bien Aim (1771) and Le Vainqueur. A section of the museum collects important 17th century copper engraved plates published in Bologna, Paris, Marseille, Amsterdam and in England.

The Specola and Museum of Astronomy has been set up since 1979 in three rooms in the building of the Specola, Palazzo Poggi , which was built by General Marsili in 1702 as early as Eustachio Manfredi.