Evangelista Torricelli

This eminent scientist breathed his last on October 25, 1647, and was interred at the church of ‘Basilica of San Lorenzo’ in Florence.

Torricelli was born on 15th October, 1608 in Faenza Italy and he was the eldest of the three children of Gaspare Torricelli and Caterina Angetti. His father was employed in the textile industry with moderate means.

Although he recognized his eldest son’s talents early, he realized that he did not have the resources. Torricelli was sent to his uncle Brother Jacopo who helped him with his education until he entered the Jesuit School.

In 1624, Torricelli was admitted in a college for the Jews and he studied both philosophy and mathematics. While some sources state that he was admitted to Jesuit College in Faenza, others believe that he got through ‘Collegio Romano’ in Rome. It is also possible that after his father’s death, when Torricelli’s mother shifted to Rome, Torricelli entered Collegio Romano after finishing his studies in Faenza.

Gauging his talent, Torricelli’s uncle sent him to his fellow monk Benedetto Castelli who was a professor at the ‘University of Sapienza’ in Rome. Catelli taught him a lot of subjects including mechanics, hydraulics, astronomy and mathematics.

Castelli was a student of Galileo, and a chance correspondence with Galileo, where Torricelli introduced himself as a mathematician, led to his liaison with the great scientist.

In 1632, the first correspondence between Galileo and Torricelli took place where Torricelli wrote on behalf of his professor Castelli. He also further explained in his letter about his interest in mathematics, his exposure to classical texts and his belief in the Copernican theory.

In 1633, in the year of Galileo’s trial, Torricelli was appointed as the secretary of Giovanni Ciampoli. Giovanni was a friend of Galileo, and Torricelli was his secretary for nine years.

By 1641, Torricelli has completed most of his work, which would later be published in three parts of ‘Opera Geometrica’.

During this period, Torricelli also worked and enhanced on Galileo’s theory of parabolic motion of the projectiles and showed it to Castelli. An impressed Castelli wrote to Galileo about Torricelli’s manuscript.

In 1641, Castelli while travelling to Venice, handed a copy of Torricelli’s work to Galileo, and asked him to appoint him as Galileo’s assistant.

Torricelli was inspired by Galileo’s theory and he wrote a treatise known as ‘De Motu’ or Concerning Movement on mechanics. This treatise was basically an amplification of Galileo’s theory on the motion of projectiles in ‘Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze’.

In 1644, Torricelli published his works in geometry in ‘Opera Geometrica’ in three parts. This was the only book to be published during his lifetime due to the benevolence of the Grand Duke. The writings had clear exposition making geometry easy to understand as compared to Cavalieri’s convoluted theories.