Bronze mortar signed and dated:

"Innocentius De Madiis fecit Brixiae" MDCC LXXV (Brescia, 1775) mortar, decorated in bas-relief with plant motifs and bearing a scroll, surmounted by a pair of musician angels, with the inscription "Innocentius De Madiis fecit Brixiae". Under the cartouche appears, in Roman characters, the date MDCC LXXV, i.e. 1775.
De Madiis is one of the many surnames with which, as early as the 12th century, the members of the Maggi family, an important Guelph family from Brescia, are remembered.
Our creator is  that Innocenzo Maggi who, in 1794, together with a certain Gaetano Soletti, melted the big bell of the Torre del Popolo in Brescia and obtained from it the four bells that still exist today.
On the facade opposite the cartouche there is the name of the Brescian apothecary for whom the mortar was made: this Girolamo Simoni, which results from a careful  research in the State Archives of Brescia, Superior Prefectural Chancellery, envelope 42.
Measurements: base diameter cm 21 x upper diameter cm 37 x height cm 34