Cosimo Zocchi

Cosimo Zocchi was a Florentine engraver whose career fell in the second half of the eighteenth century, during which Florence was home to a flourishing tradition of copperplate engraving serving both the book trade and the market for vedute and topographic prints. He is the likely relative — possibly son or nephew — of Giuseppe Zocchi (1711–1767), the celebrated Florentine draughtsman and engraver best known for his Scelta di XXIV Vedute delle principali Contrade, Piazze, Chiese e Palazzi della Città di Firenze (1744), a series of views of Florence that remained the standard pictorial record of the city for generations. Cosimo’s engraving of the Magnelli plan of 1783 is among the most technically ambitious works associated with his name, the precision demanded by a large-scale urban survey at this scale placing considerable strain on the engraver’s craft. His documented activity extends to at least 1787.