Early life[edit]

Evangelista Torricelli was born on 15 October 1608 in Rome; he invented the barometer in
Florence, Italy. The firstborn child of Gaspare Ruberti and Caterina Angetti.[citation needed] His
family was from Faenza in the Province of Ravenna, then part of the Papal States. His
father was a textile worker and the family was very poor. Seeing his talents, his parents
sent him to be educated in Faenza, under the care of his uncle, Giacomo (Jacob),
a Camaldolese monk, who first ensured that his nephew was given a sound basic
education. He then entered young Torricelli into a Jesuit College in 1624, possibly the one
in Faenza itself, to study mathematics and philosophy until 1626, by which time his father,
Gaspare, had died. The uncle then sent Torricelli to Rome to study science under
the Benedictine monk Benedetto Castelli, professor of mathematics at the Collegio della
Sapienza (now known as the Sapienza University of Rome).[2] Castelli was a student
of Galileo Galilei.[3] "Benedetto Castelli made experiments on running water (1628), and he
was entrusted by Pope Urban VIII with hydraulic undertakings."[4] There is no actual
evidence that Torricelli was enrolled at the university. It is almost certain that Torricelli was
taught by Castelli. In exchange he worked for him as his secretary from 1626 to 1632 as a
private arrangement.[5] Because of this, Torricelli was exposed to experiments funded
by Pope Urban VIII. While living in Rome, Torricelli became also the student of the
mathematician Bonaventura Cavalieri, with whom he became great friends.[3] It was in
Rome that Torricelli also became friends with two other students of Castelli, Raffaello
Magiotti and Antonio Nardi. Galileo referred to Torricelli, Magiotti, and Nardi affectionately
as his "triumvirate" in Rome.