Emanuele Rosselli was a designer and manufacturer of motorcycles and car and moped angines who came to Turin from Livorno and set up a small, well-equipped workshop in via Nizza 29 in 1889. His creations included a single-cylinder “Lilliput” engine for bicycles, 1 to 5 bhp engines for motorcycles, and a V2 engine for cars, boats and stationary plants. Several versions of two cylinder Optimus powered small cars built by Rosselli himself. In 1902, he produced “racing and touring motorcycles”, one of which is on display. It is a 1.5 bhp model with a single-cylinder, four- stroke engine, automatic inlet valve and operated, side exhaust valve, and carburettor and spark advance control levers on the side of the fuel tank. Rosselli’s “latest novelty” appeared in 1903. This was a lady’s motorcycle duly provided with a net over the drive chain to ensure the rider’s skirt would not be soiled nor torn. In the following year, however, Rosselli’s poor health obliged him to close down and return to Livorno.
