This brass compound monocular microscope was made by Italian instrument maker Filippo Pacini in 1868. The model featured below was redrawn from photographs of the original microscope, which is part of the Gerard Turner catalog of microscopes from the Institute and Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy.

The circular stage is positioned above an inverted objective, which is housed in a heavy brass box attached to the stylish microscope base. Inside the box is a prism for directing light rays and the microscope focusing rack mechanism. Fine focus is achieved by slightly tilting the stage with a miniature screw mechanism seen on the left underside of the stage. The body tube is secured into an angled side of the brass box and has a sliding draw-tube containing a Huygenian eyepiece. The condenser is mounted onto a Y-shaped bracket supported by two tapered pillars, and contains four swing-out aperture disks. Above the condenser is a plano-concave mirror to direct light into the microscope's optical system.

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