Person
Turriano, Juanelo (ca. 1500-1585)Alternative forms (other languages) Other forms
Cremona (Lombardía, Italia) 1500 - Toledo (España) 1585-06-13
He started his career as clockmaker apprentice in Cremona. Moved in Milano where he became clockmaster and he married. He entered to the service of emperor Charles V as royal clockmaker after repairing the astronomical clock of Giovanni Dondi, broken since 14th century, as a gift of the city of Milano to Charles V. After the emperor's die in 1558 he served his son Philip II, mainly as civil engineer. One of his most outstandings works was the machine to raise water to the Alcázar of Toledo, saving a 100 m high gradient; he made two of them, and those machines remained working for a century. He adviced Philip II about the reformation of the Julian calendar, decreed in 1585 by pope Gregorius XIII.