ABSTRACT
This chapter presents Torelli's Orphei lyra. It demonstrates that Torelli's literary approach to the harmony of the spheres is influenced by his predilection for eloquence, which he believed constituted the truest form of music and, thus, the true harmony of the world. Le glorie de gli Incogniti (The Glory of the Unknowns) offers the most complete, early modern account of Andrea Torelli's life. Besides outlining Torelli's education, travels, and career, it contains a list of his poetical, philosophical, and legal works. In Torelli's cosmos, eloquence and harmony are joined in the work of the Creator, which includes a series of six degrees, which themselves form the harmony of the world. At the end of his Orphei lyra, Torelli appeals to the pharmacum of the sound of the Orphic lyre, since the lyre of the wise Orpheus is the means of creating harmony between heavenly and inferior bodies and joining the goodness of souls to the erudition of the wise man.
