The three Campani brothers, Giuseppe, Matteo and Pietro Tommaso, were, during the 17th century, inventors and first makers of Italian night clocks. The first night clocks were made for Pope Alexander VII, who wanted clocks which made no noise and were softly illuminated at night. The prototypes had rotating drums, run on mercury, like the clock of Alfonso of Castile, but they were soon superseded by conventional 30-hour movements, those of Pietro Tommaso Campani having a particular type of silent escapement in which the pendulum controlled a continuously revolving escape wheel, resulting in a completely silent action. This was an original idea but it was unsatisfactory as far as timekeeping was concerned. Other forms of silent verge escapements were more generally applied. As a rule, cases were in ebonised pearwood in the shape of a baroque altar. The most remarkable characteristic of these clocks was the dial, which was painted copper and looked like an altar piece. The subject of the painting was usually mythological or religious, or of landscapes and flowers. The hours were indicated by means of pierced discs, lit by an internal lamp, which moved along a segmental slit cut into the painting itself. The minutes were shown by the position of the hour disc along the divisions, also pierced, made along the slit. The movements were always well made, some with striking, nearly always spring-driven but sometimes with weights and a system of pulleys to prolong their descent. These night clocks were first made in Rome, and later in other Italian cities.