Luigi Raffaele Simone Michelini (Rome 1798 - Paris 1857) Was a pupil of Girometti, his name appears in the Paris Almanac only in 1829, but already in 1825 he had opened a shop in Place de l'Oratoire 4, as an engraver and "merchant of curiosities". He therefore left Rome long before his master's death in November 1851. From his first activity as a shell engraver we know, at the moment, only his portrait of Washington, with bust facing left. It is through his naturalization document published in the “Bulletin des Lois” that we learn his exact name and date of birth. He married at the age of 47 on June 7, 1845 Marguerite Sophie Brusque.

The "Tabularium Vicariatus Urbis" of San Giovanni in Laterano shows that there were very few Michelini in the "Cresmi" (acts of confirmations grouped for all the parishes). But despite this it has been possible to confirm that Luigi, Raffaello, Simone Michelini was born on 28 October 1798 in the parish of San Lorenzo in Lucina (Book of Baptisms of 1788-1798). The state of souls in 1805 indicates that on that date the family consisted of Domenico Michelini, the 41-year-old father, goldsmith, of his wife, Francesca Bonnacorsi, Roman like the husband, also 41, of 13-year-old Luigi , Matilda 11 years, Antonio 9 years, Carlo apparently 3 months, all live in via di San Sebastiano 8, next to Piazza di Spagna: in this district, between the Corso, the Piazza di Spagna, that of the Tritone was at the time the privileged place of goldsmiths and gem engravers.

As for a portrait, it is in fact the self-portrait of Luigi since his father was called Domenico, which excluded the hypothesis, briefly mentioned, of a Jewish descent, due to one of Michelini's first names, that of Simone , preserved on one of his French documents ...

The catalog of the Paris Exposition of 1855 indicates that he obtained a 1st class medal for having sent, as an engraver of cameos for the Papal States, three frames for a total of fifty-one cameos, including Napoleon III, the Empress Eugenie, Bacchus, Iris, Antinous, Venus, the Apollo of the Belvedere, Diana and a Bacchante.

"A Roman, L. Michelini, who had settled in Paris for thirty years, began to devote himself to shell cameos: his talent, his perseverance, the advice of his teacher Girometti, led him to open shops, then to undertake and dedicate himself to engraving on fine stones; since then he has never ceased to devote his entire life, all his care to reviving his favorite art, and today he has the satisfaction of having directed the execution of admirable works that we see in the Palace of Industry and Fine Arts It is therefore right to loudly proclaim the name of this tireless and skilled industrialist. He exhibits three frames, which bring together fifty-one cameos in semiprecious stones: they are the portraits of Napoleon III, the Empress; Bacchus, the Iris, the Antinous, the Venus, the Apollo of Nelvedere, the Diana, the Bacchante and a crowd of heads copied from antiquity. Michelini achieved a double result in full; he knows, in a very narrow field, to express all the details that a composition entails and, on the other hand, he did not hesitate to use semi-precious stones of extraordinary dimensions. We have no doubt that this beautiful and rich collection of precious stone cameos will attract a reward of the highest value to their creator. " - Notice sur les produits de Etats Pontificaux, 1855.

He died on August 24, 1857 at 88 rue de l'Empereur (rue Lepic); his reconstructed death certificate calls him Simone. He was then fifty-nine and had no children.