Filippo Mazzei
Filippo Mazzei (Americanized: Philip Mazzei, born December 25, 1730 in Poggio a Caiano ( Italy ), † March 19, 1816 in Pisa ) was an Italian-American diplomat .
Life
Mazzei was born in Poggio-a-Caiano in 1730. Until 1755 he worked as a doctor in the Ottoman Empire , then as a teacher of Italian and as a wine merchant in London . From 1773 he lived in Virginia ( USA ), where he introduced and spread the cultivation of wine and olives. He lived on a plantation east of Charlottesville , joined the circle around Thomas Jefferson and became a supporter of the revolutionary movement in Virginia. Patrick Henry sent him to Europe in 1779 to collect loans for the Commonwealth of Virginia . Mazzei was unsuccessful on this matter, but he did gather political and military information that he passed on to Jefferson. After his return to America in 1783, the hopes he had cherished for a position in the consular service of the USA were dashed, so in 1785 he finally moved back to Europe and was there from 1788 to 1791 in the service of the Polish king ( Poland was at that time part of the Russian Reiches) worked in Paris, then in Warsaw and finally in Pisa. After 1802 he moved into a pension from the Russian tsar.
literature
- Filippo Mazzei: Recherches historiques et politiques sur les Etats-Unis de L'Amerique septentrionale (4 vols., 1788).
- Filippo Mazzei: Memorie della peregrinazioni del fiorentino Filippo Mazzei (2 vols., 1845)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mazzei, Filippo |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mazzei, Philip (Americanized) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian diplomat |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 25, 1730 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Poggio a Caiano |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 19, 1816 |
| Place of death | Pisa |