TORRICELLI, Giuseppe Antonio

Italian craftsman. He came from a dynasty of artisans who had been active for some time in the Medici workshop in Florence; an ancestor called Bartolomeo is mentioned among the craftsmen employed at the Cappella dei Principi, Florence, during the reign of Ferdinand I. According to a manuscriptGLOSSARYcollective term for books or other documents written by hand; in a specific sense, the hand-written medieval book, the Codex manuscriptus, often ornamented with decorative borders, illuminated initials and miniatures, and containing works of ancient philosophy or scholarly, ecclesiastical, and literary texts. Manuscripts were usually produced on commission. At first the scriptoria (writing rooms) of monasteries transcribed the contents of famous manuscripts and made copies. Monastic communities in the Netherlands and northern Germany began producing manuscripts around 1383/84. Flanders, Burgundy, and in particular Paris became major centres for the mass production of breviaries (prayer books) and Books of Hours. (1739; Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale) by his contemporary, the collector Francesco Maria Nicolò Gabburri, Torricelli studied drawing with Alessandro Rosi (1627-1707) and modelling with Gaetano Zumbo (1656-1701) and was employed by Cosimo III at the Grand Ducal workshop to carve cameos and reliefs. The cameos he created include one of the elderly Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere (London, Victoria and Albert Museum) and another, unusually large, of Cosimo III and Tuscany in front of the Temple of Peace (chalcedony, Florence, Museo dell'Opificio delle Pietre Dure).