Individuals

Torsellini, Giovanni di Torsellino di Piero di Lapo (bottaio)

Description

Giovanni di Torsellino was a cooper who told tax officials in 1427 that his house was in the parish of San Pancrazio, where he had set up a tomb and endowed annual masses at a rate of six soldi per year: "Fa ogni anno uno rinovale in San Pancrazio per l'anima de morti miei e costami s. sei" (Every year I make a memorial mass in San Pancrazio for the souls of my dead that costs me six soldi).

He described his house as in via del Moro facing the street and neighboring Filippo di Tommaso, a little alleyway, and mona Antonia, the widow of Niccolò di Jacopo pizzicagnolo (operator of the Renaissance version of a fast food restaurant or food truck). Though a skilled craftsman who did not use a surname, Giovanni owned two houses in the vicinity of the Camaldolese hermitage at Camaldoli, which earned him rental income, as well as a farm and eleven plots of land (pezzi di terra) in the Mugello which produced various agricultural products. He also had three forested plots, likely from whence he harvested wood for his barrel business.