Filippo Mazzei

Filippo Mazzei
Filippo Mazzei depicted in a portrait by Jacques-Louis David, c. 1790
Born	(1730-12-25)December 25, 1730 Poggio a Caiano, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Died	March 19, 1816(1816-03-19) (aged 85) Pisa, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Other names	Philip Mazzei
Occupations	Physician philosopher diplomat winemaker merchant promoter of liberty author
Years active	1752–1816
Known for	Publishing (1774) a pamphlet containing the phrase "All men are by nature equally free and independent" (which Thomas Jefferson incorporated into the United States Declaration of Independence)

Filippo Mazzei (Italian pronunciation: [fiˈlippo matˈtsɛi]; December 25, 1730 – March 19, 1816), also known in English as Philip Mazzei and sometimes erroneously cited as Philip Mazzie, was an Italian physician, philosopher, diplomat, winemaker, merchant, promoter of liberty and author. A close friend of Thomas Jefferson, he was a strong supporter of the American Revolution and the American colonies' war for independence from Britain.

In 1774 he published a pamphlet containing the phrase, which Jefferson incorporated essentially intact into the United States Declaration of Independence: "All men are by nature equally free and independent". The contribution of Filippo Mazzei to the declaration was acknowledged by John F. Kennedy in his 1958 book A Nation of Immigrants.

Early life and education

Birthplace of Filippo Mazzei in Poggio a Caiano

Mazzei was born in Poggio a Caiano in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany as a son of Domenico and Elisabetta. After his studies in medicine between Prato and Florence, in 1752, following disagreements with his older brother Jacopo over the management of the family heritage, he settled in Pisa and then in Livorno, practicing as a doctor but after only two years he left the city and moved to Smyrna (then part of the Ottoman Empire) as a surgeon following a local doctor.

Career

Mazzei practiced medicine in the Middle East for several years before moving to London in 1755 to take up a mercantile career as an importer.

In London, he worked as a teacher of Italian language. While in London he met the Americans Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. While doing work for Franklin, Mazzei shared his idea of importing Tuscan products, wine and olive trees, to the New World. Here Filippo Mazzei will cultivate vineyards, olives, and other Mediterranean fruit with the help of Italians.

On September 2, 1773, Mazzei boarded a ship from Livorno to the Colony of Virginia, bringing with him plants, seeds, silkworms, and 10 farmers from Lucca. He was also joined by a widow, Maria Martin, whom he married in 1778, and his friend Carlo Bellini who between 1779 and 1803 would become the first teacher of Italian at an American university, the College of William & Mary in Virginia.

He visited Jefferson at his estate, and the two became good friends. Jefferson gave Mazzei an allotment of land for an experimental plantation. Mazzei purchased more land adjoining this gift of acreage and established a plantation he named Colle. They shared an interest in politics and liberal values, and maintained an active correspondence for the rest of Mazzei's life.

The United States Declaration of Independence

In 1774 he published a pamphlet containing the phrase, which Jefferson incorporated essentially intact into the United States Declaration of Independence: "All men are by nature equally free and independent":

Tutti gli uomini sono per natura egualmente liberi e indipendenti. Quest'eguaglianza è necessaria per costituire un governo libero. Bisogna che ognuno sia uguale all'altro nel diritto naturale.

Translated by Jefferson as follow:

All men are by nature equally free and independent. Such equality is necessary in order to create a free government. All men must be equal to each other in natural law

In 1779, following the emergence of the independent United States after the colonial victory in the American Revolutionary War, Mazzei returned to Italy as a secret agent for Virginia. He purchased and shipped arms to them until 1783. After briefly visiting the United States again in 1785 for the last time, Mazzei travelled throughout Europe promoting republican ideals. His wife remained in the United States until her death in 1788 at the estate, which Mazzei had donated in 1783 to his stepdaughter, Margherita Maria Martini and to her husband, the Frenchman Justin Pierre Plumard, Count De Rieux.

He wrote a political history of the American Revolution, Recherches historiques et politiques sur les États-Unis de l'Amerique septentrionale, and published it in Paris in 1788. It was the first history of the American Revolution published in French. The work is still a valuable source of information on the movement that sparked the American Revolution.

While in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth he became attached as a Privy Councilor at the court of King Stanislaus II. There he became acquainted with Polish liberal and constitutional thought, like the works of Wawrzyniec Grzymała Goślicki and ideas of Golden Freedoms and Great Sejm. King Stanislaus appointed Mazzei to be Poland's representative in Paris, where he again met Jefferson.

Commemorative plaque in Pisa on the facade of the house where Mazzei died

After Poland was partitioned between Russia and Prussia in 1795, Mazzei, along with the rest of the Polish court, was given a pension by the Russian crown. He later spent more time in France, becoming active in the politics of the French Revolution under the Directorate. When Napoleon overthrew that government Mazzei returned definitively to Tuscany, settling in Pisa where in 1796 he married Antonina Tonini, with whom he had a daughter, Elisabetta, in 1798.

Mazzei always remained nostalgic for Virginia and his American friends, who hoped for his return and with whom he never interrupted his epistolary contact. He died in Pisa in 1816 without ever returning to America. After his death the remainder of his family returned to the United States at the urging of Jefferson. They settled in Massachusetts and Virginia.

He was buried at the Suburbano Cemetery in Pisa.

The friendship between Mazzei and Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the United States

The friendship between Thomas Jefferson and Filippo Mazzei is attested by the numerous letters they exchanged, an estimate that was confirmed in letters to third parties:

[Mazzei] possesses first rate abilities .... He has been a zealous whig from the beginning and I think may be relied on perfectly in point of integrity. He is very sanguine in his expeditions of the services he could render us on this occasion and would undertake it on a very moderate appointment.

— Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Hancock, October 19, 1778

I am induced to this quick reply to [your letter] by an alarming paragraph in it, which is that Mazzei is coming to Annapolis. I tremble at the idea. I know he will be worse to me than a return of my double quotidian head-ach.

— Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, March 16, 1784

[A]n intimacy of 40. years had proved to me his great worth; and a friendship, which had begun in personal acquaintance, was maintained after separation, without abatement, by a constant interchange of letters. his esteem too in this country was very general; his early & zealous cooperation in the establishment of our independance having acquired for him here a great degree of favor.

— Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Giovanni Carmignani, July 18, 1816

Your letters ... brought me the first information of the death of my antient friend Mazzei, which I learn with sincere regret. he had some peculiarities, & who of us has not? but he was of solid worth; honest, able, zealous in sound principles moral & political, constant in friendship, and punctual in all his undertakings. he was greatly esteemed in this country.

— Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Appleton, July 18, 1816

Many biographers believe Jefferson and George Washington had a falling out over a letter Jefferson sent to Mazzei in Italy, which called the Washington Administration "Anglican, monarchical, and aristocratical," and claimed that Washington had appointed as military officers "all timid men that prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty ... [I]t would give you a fever were I to name to you the apostates who have gone over to these heresies, men who were Samsons in the field and Solomons in the council, but who have had their heads shorn by the harlot England." The letter was eventually published overseas and then re-translated back into English by Noah Webster and published in the United States.

Mazzei's writings

In English

• Filippo Mazzei. My Life and Wanderings. Translated by S. Eugene Scalia. Edited by Margherita Marchione. Morristown, NJ: American Institute of Italian Studies, 1980. ISBN 0-916322-03-3.

In French

• Filippo Mazzei: Recherches Historiques et Politiques sur les Etats-Unis de l'Amérique Septentrionale (Historical and Political Enquiries Concerning the United States of North America), 2019. Four Volumes. ISBN 978-1011472581
• Filippo Mazzei, Stanisław August Poniatowski, Lettres de Philippe Mazzei et du roi Stanislas-Auguste de Pologne., Roma : Istituto storico italiano per l'età moderna e contemporanea, 1982 [ISBN unspecified]

In Italian

• Filippo Mazzei: Memorie della vita e delle peregrinazioni del fiorentino Filippo Mazzei, edited by Gino Capponi, Lugano, Tip. della Svizzera Italiana, 1845–1846, 2 volumes [ISBN unspecified]
• Filippo Mazzei: Del commercio della seta fatto in Inghilterra dalla Compagnia delle Indie Orientali (manoscritto inedito di Filippo Mazzei – 1769), edited by Silvano Gelli, Poggio a Caiano, Comune di Poggio a Caiano, 2001. [ISBN unspecified]

Acknowledgment

First edition front cover of A Nation of Immigrants by John F. Kennedy (1958)

The contribution of Filippo Mazzei to the U.S. Declaration of Independence was acknowledged by John F. Kennedy in his 1958 book A Nation of Immigrants, in which he states that:

The great doctrine 'All men are created equal' and incorporated into the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, was paraphrased from the writing of Philip Mazzei, an Italian-born patriot and pamphleteer, who was a close friend of Jefferson. A few alleged scholars try to discredit Mazzei as the creator of this statement and idea, saying that "there is no mention of it anywhere until after the Declaration was published". This phrase appears in Italian in Mazzei's own hand, written in Italian, several years prior to the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Mazzei and Jefferson often exchanged ideas about true liberty and freedom. No one man can take complete credit for the ideals of American democracy.

Legacy

A 40-cent United States airmail stamp was issued in 1980 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Mazzei's birth.

The World War II Liberty Ship SS Filipp Mazzei was named in his honor.

See also

• American Revolution
• Patrick Henry
• George Mason, 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights
• James Monroe
• William Paca
• Francesco Vigo
• John Page
• Founding Fathers of the United States
• List of important people in the era of the American Revolution

Bibliography

In English

• Philip Mazzei: My Life and Wanderings, ed. Marchione, Sister Margherita, American Institute of Italian Studies, Morristown, NJ, 1980, 437pp ISBN 978-0916322038. Translation to English of Mazzei's autobiography.
• Marchione: Philip Mazzei: Selected Writings and Correspondence:

• Vol. I – Virginia's Agent during the American Revolution, XLVIII, 585 pp.;
• Vol. II – Agent for the King of Poland during the French Revolution, 802 pp.;
• Vol. III – World Citizen, 623 pp.

Cassa di Risparmi e Depositi, Prato, 1983, ISBN 978-0916322083.

• Marchione, Sister Margherita: Philip Mazzei: Jefferson's "Zealous Whig", American Institute of Italian Studies, Morristown, NJ, 1975, 352 pp. [ISBN unspecified]
• Marchione: The Adventurous Life of Philip Mazzei – La vita avventurosa di Filippo Mazzei (bilingual English – Italian), University Press of America, Lanham, MD, 1995, 235 pp. ISBN 978-0819199270
• Marchione: The Constitutional Society of 1784, Center for Mazzei Studies, Morristown, NJ, 1984, 49 pp. [ISBN unspecified]
• Marchione: Philip Mazzei: World Citizen (Jefferson's "Zealous Whig"), University Press of America, Lanham, MD, 1994, 158 pp. [ISBN unspecified]
• Renee Critcher Lyons: Foreign-Born American Patriots-Sixteen Volunteer Leaders In The Revolutionary War, 2014. North Carolina-McFarland Publishing. ISBN 978-0786471843

In Italian

• Filippo Mazzei: Scelta di scritti e lettere:

• Vol.I: 1765–1788. Agente di Virginia durante la rivoluzione americana; pp. XLVII–582
• Vol.II:1788–1791. Agente del Re di Polonia durante la Rivoluzione Francese; pp. XVI–703, XVII–633
• Vol.III: 1792–1816. Cittadino del Mondo; pp. XVII–633

Prato, 1984, Ediz.del Palazzo per Cassa di Risparmi e Depositi di Prato, [ISBN unspecified].

• Marchione, Sister Margherita: Istruzioni per essere liberi ed eguali, Cisalpino-Gogliardica, Milan, 1984, 160 pp [ISBN unspecified]
• Marchione: The Adventurous Life of Philip Mazzei - La vita avventurosa di Filippo Mazzei (bilingual English – Italian), University Press of America, Lanham, MD, 1995, 235 pp ISBN 978-0819199270

Others books about Mazzei

In English

• Biaggi, Mario: An Appreciation of Philip Mazzei – an Unsung American Patriot, in CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Washington, D.C., September 12, 1984 [ISBN unspecified]
• Di Grazia, Marco: Philip Mazzei, a hero of American independence. Illustrations and cover Marcello Mangiantini, translation Miranda MacPhail Tuscan Regional Government, Poggio a Caiano. 1990, 52p [ISBN unspecified]
• Gaines, William H.: Virginia History in Documents 1621-1788, Virginia State Library, Richmond, 1974 [ISBN unspecified]
• Garlick, Richard, Jr: Philip Mazzei, Friend of Jefferson: His Life and letters, Baltimore-London-Paris, The Johns Hopkins Press-Humphrey Nilfort Oxford University Press – Société d'Editions Les Belles Lettres, 1933 [ISBN unspecified]
• Garlick: Italy and the Italians in Washington's time, New York Arno Press, 1975 [ISBN unspecified]
• Guzzetta, Charles: Mazzei in America, in DREAM STREETS – THE BIG BOOK OF ITALIAN AMERICAN CULTURE, Lawrence DiStasi editor, Harper & Row, New York, 1989 [ISBN unspecified]
• Kennedy, John F.: A Nation of Immigrants, Perennial, 2008 ISBN 978-0061447549
• Lippucci, Mary Theresa: The correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Philip Mazzei, 1779–1815, 1939 [ISBN unspecified]
• Malone, Dumas (editor): Dictionary of American Biography, VOL. VI, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1933 [ISBN unspecified]
• Marraro, Howard R.: An Unpublished Jefferson Letter to Mazzei, Italica, Vol. 35, No. 2 (June 1958), pp. 83–87 [ISBN unspecified]
• Marraro: Jefferson Letters Concerning the Settlement of Mazzei's Virginia Estate, The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 30, No. 2 (September 1943), pp. 235–242 [ISBN unspecified]
• Marraro: Philip Mazzei - Virginia's Agent in Europe, New York Public Library, 1935 [ISBN unspecified]
• Marraro: Philip Mazzei and his Polish friends sn, 1944 [ISBN unspecified]
• Sammartino, Peter: The Contributions of Italians to the United States before the Civil War: a conference to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Philip Mazzei, Washington, D.C., April 18–20, 1980, Washington, D.C., National Italian American Foundation, 1980. [ISBN unspecified]
• Schiavo, Giovanni Ermenegildo: Philip Mazzei: one of America's founding fathers, New York: Vigo Press, 1951 [ISBN unspecified]
• Masini, Giancarlo, Gori, Iacopo: How Florence Invented America - Vespucci, Verrazzano, Mazzei and their Contributions to the Conception of the New World, New York: Marsilio Publishers, 1999 ISBN 978-1568860602.

In Italian

• AA.VV., Dalla Toscana all'America: il contributo di Filippo Mazzei, Poggio a Caiano, Comune di Poggio a Caiano, 2004. [ISBN unspecified]
• Becattini Massimo, Filippo Mazzei mercante italiano a Londra (1756–1772), Poggio a Caiano, Comune di Poggio a Caiano, 1997. [ISBN unspecified]
• Bolognesi Andrea, Corsetti Luigi, Di Stadio Luigi: Filippo Mazzei mostra di cimeli e scritti, exhibition catalog edited by, Poggio a Caiano, Palazzo Comunale, July 3-25, 1996, Comune di Poggio a Caiano, 1996. [ISBN unspecified]
• Camajani Guelfo Guelfi,Filippo Mazzei : un illustre toscano del Settecento : medico, agricoltore, scrittore, giornalista, diplomatico, Firenze, Associazione Internazionale Toscani nel Mondo, 1976. [ISBN unspecified]
• Ciampini Raffaele, Lettere di Filippo Mazzei alla corte di Polonia (1788–1792), Bologna : N. Zanichelli, 1937 [ISBN unspecified]
• Corsetti Luigi, Gradi Renzo: Bibliografia su Filippo Mazzei Avventuriero della Libertà edited by, with writings by Margherita Marchione e Edoardo Tortarolo, Poggio a Caiano, C.I.C Filippo Mazzei – Associazione Culturale "Ardengo Soffici", 1993. [ISBN unspecified]
• Di Stadio Luigi, Filippo Mazzei tra pubblico e privato. Raccolta di documenti inediti, edited by, Poggio a Caiano, Biblioteca Comunale di Poggio a Caiano, 1996. [ISBN unspecified]
• Gerosa Guido, Il fiorentino che fece l'America. Vita e avventure di Filippo Mazzei 1730–1916, Milano, SugarCo Edizioni, 1990. ISBN 978-8871980034
• Gradi Renzo, Un bastimento carico di Roba bestie e uomini in un manoscritto inedito di Filippo Mazzei, Poggio a Caiano, Comune di Poggio a Caiano, 1991. [ISBN unspecified]
• Gradi Renzo, Parigi: luglio 1789. Scritti e memorie del fiorentino Filippo Mazzei, edited by Comune di Poggio a Caiano, 1989. [ISBN unspecified]
• Gullace Giovanni, Figure dimenticate dell'indipendenza americana, Filippo Mazzei e Francesco Vigo, Roma : Il Veltro, 1977. [ISBN unspecified]
• Masini Giancarlo, Gori Iacopo, L'America fu concepita a Firenze, Firenze : Bonechi, 1998. ISBN 978-8880292432
• Tognetti Burigana Sara, Tra riformismo illuminato e dispotismo napoleonico; esperienze del "cittadino americano" Filippo Mazzei, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e letteratura, 1965. [ISBN unspecified]
• Tortarolo Edoardo, Illuminismo e Rivoluzioni. Biografia politica di Filippo Mazzei, Milano, Angeli, 1986. ISBN 978-8820440961
• Łukaszewicz, Witold, Filippo Mazzei, Giuseppe Mazzini; saggi sui rapporti italo-polacchi, Wroclaw, Poland Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1970. [ISBN unspecified]

External links

• www.philipmazzei.us Official site Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine
• Monticello the home of Thomas Jefferson
• Philip Mazzei Encyclopædia Britannica
• A branch o Mazzei's Family Today
• Philip Mazzei at the Library of Congress
• Another Site about P.Mazzei and other famous Italian American