In the Forests of Borneo. Odoardo Beccari's Journey to the Lands of the White Rajah

From 15 November 2025 to 15 February 2025, the Specola Museum will host an exhibition dedicated to Odoardo Beccari, a Florentine scholar who, in April 1865, at the age of just 22,  embarked on a journey to Borneo - in the Sarawak region - where he remained for three years in complete isolation, discovering unexplored lands and unknown peoples.

The result of this exploration was an impressive collection of scientific data, botanical and zoological finds, first documented in a number of notebooks and then recounted many years later in the book Nelle foreste di Borneo (In the Forests of Borneo), which gives the exhibition its title and inspired Salgari in the writing of his novels.

The exhibition, curated by Lorenzo Cecchi, Anna Donatelli, Stefano Di Natale and Chiara Nepi, retraces Beccari's adventure with original finds, unpublished photographs and spectacular images of contemporary Borneo, highlighting both the extraordinary richness of those forests and their extreme fragility.

Access to the exhibition is included in the museum admission ticket.