Torricelli, Evangelista

Torricelli, Evangelista āvänjālē´stä tōr-rēchĕl´lē [key], 1608–47, Italian physicist and mathematician. He was Galileo's secretary (1641–42) and his successor as professor of philosophy and mathematics at Florence. He invented the barometer (1643), called the Torricelli tube, and a microscope, and he improved the telescope.