Eustachio Divini

Eustachio Divini (1610 to 1685) was an Italian manufacturer and experimenter of optical instruments for scientific use in Rome. Born at San Severino Marche, he lost his mother at four and his father seven years later, and his brothers Vincenzo and Cipriano raised him and took him to Rome. A military career ended after a severe illness in 1629. Through Vincenzo he joined the circle of Benedetto Castelli, a pupil of Galileo, and met Evangelista Torricelli, Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, Bonaventura Cavalieri and Michelangelo Ricci. In the early 1640s he worked as a clockmaker, then with Torricelli turned to building and improving microscopes and telescopes. His workshop near Piazza Navona employed many artisans, including mechanics and glassmakers, and from 1646 to about mid-century his lenses spread across Europe and made him Italy's foremost optician. Prominent secular and church figures in Rome owned his telescopes, and the Medici court in Florence bought many. His group of scholars at the Roman College developed new working methods and optical systems, and he died in 1685.