Palazzo dei Vicari - Scarperia

Few things have accompanied the life and activity of man as much as the knife, omnipresent on the table of the poor and of the powerful, a faithful tool used for working fields and woods, a companion of a thousand adventures and dangers, a love token, a symbol of faithfulness… In the case of an entire community, like the one in Scarperia devoted to the manufacture of cutting tools, the knife results to be an element of identity and collective memory. 

The museum itinerary

The tour includes two different realities corresponding respectively to the main session of the museum - the place of memory in Palazzo dei Vicari, and in the cutler's workshop - the working place which can be considered as a "living museum".
The museum tour starts with a story of the multiform presence of the knife in human actions commented by paintings representing the Italian artistic production (section 1. The knife. Material for a story) through the manual approach (the assembly benches), the visitor can get acquainted with the parts that compose the various types of knives and their corresponding useful working characteristics. The visitor carries out the real assembly of a knife and in this way can value the complexity of tools which seem so simple as for example the table knife (section 2. The knife, its form and parts). An itinerary among the production of cutting tools and blades of various Italian centres make us see and compare materials, techniques and objects which are very far from one another both in time and location (section 3. The production centres of knives in Italy ).

The culture and the production of knives in Scarperia constitute the arrival point and represent the crucial point of the museum itinerary; the life and work of the cutlers' families of Scarperia wind among memories, through pictures and reconstruction of the working place, of the social and familiar organization, of the disputed relation between the craft profession and the agricultural world that have characterized the first industrial panorama in Tuscany (section 4. The cutlers of Scarperia).

The shapes of the knives, the constructive characteristics, the range of the production of Scarperia, are at least given back through the witness-objects as working tools with worn out blades as a result of the innumerable sharpening, the delicate accessories for writing desks and the eternal "zuava" of Scarperia (section 5. The knives of Scarperia).

In 2014, the town council of Scarperia took care over a new setting up the section reserved to didactic laborarories, and of a new part of the museum: newtactil course ways were installed for not seeing people, interactive games for young people wirh subtitles too. Furthermore, it is possible for children to watch an amusing cartoon to better understand the history of Scarperia knif. The new setting was completed by including the local WI FI net and a QR CODE which are connected with historical and technical deepings, to keep in touch to the new communicative forms, above all for youg people.

The cutler's workshop - Via Solferino - Scarperia

Therefore the cutler's workshop represents the part of the museum itinerary where it is possible to follow the stages of the making of a knife through a direct experience and so every visitor's emotional involvement. The cutler's workshop has been opened to the public since 1990.

The Activity Book  engages young visitors and their families along the exhibition of the Museum: games, exercises and practical activities. In Museum of Cutting Blades in Scarperia these booklets for children ( in Italian ) are offered for the cost of reduced admission to the museum.

You can download the Activity Book here

NEWS 2016: possibility of visit to the tower, passing from wood stairs, starting from the room where the clock of Brunelleschi is in.

NEWS 2017: included in the entrance ticket to the Museum and Palace, independent tower visit and video-audio guide to get free entrance.