Mazzei Philip

The Italian doctor Filippo, later Philip Mazzei (1730-1816) came from an ancient patrician family in Tuscany. His family had been growing wine there since the 11th century. Today they own the Castello di Fonterutoli winery in Tuscany (with a wine bearing his likeness) and one in Sicily. After studying medicine in Florence, Mazzei worked as a doctor in the Ottoman Empire until 1755 and then as a teacher of Italian and a wine merchant in London. There he met Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and the later Senator Thomas Adams (1730-1788), who awakened his enthusiasm for the USA. He then emigrated to America in 1773, was politically active in connection with the War of Independence and was also involved in the formulation of the Declaration of Independence. In 1773, he led a group of immigrant Italians who introduced the cultivation of wine, olives and fruit in Virginia. Among them was Anthony Giannini (1747-1824), the estate manager of the later third US President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) on his Monticello estate.

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Mazzei Philip

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