Untitled - Istituto di Storia dell'Europa Mediterranea - Cnr

2. FILIPPO MAZZEI AND HIS LETTERS
Filippo Mazzei (1730-1816) was a curious and interesting character
even for his troubled times. Nowhere at home, he spent his first 24
years in the Italian peninsula, where he was born. In 1754 he began to
wander: the Middle East (1754-6), London (1756-72),Virginia (1773-
9, 1783-5), Paris (1779-82, 1785-91). Back to the Italian peninsula for
good in 1792, Mazzei spent the remaining 24 years of his life in
isolation, except for a short trip to St. Petersburg (1802). During his
38 years "abroad," Mazzei witnessed the beginning of the American
Revolution and of the French Revolution, and secured two diplomatic
appointments: he was Virginia's agent in Europe (1779-83) and the
informer in Paris (1788-91) of King Stanislaus II August Poniatowski
of Poland (1732-98). Moreover, throughout his life Mazzei was a
compulsive letter-writer. His correspondents were, to name but a few,
John Adams (1735-1826), Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), Thomas
Jefferson (1743-1826), Benjamin Harrison (1726-81), Marquis Marie-
Joseph de La Fayette (1757-1834), James Madison (1751-1836), King
Stanislaus II and George Washington (1732-99).
Some 1,200 of the Mazzei papers (documents written by or to or
about him) are now available in a beautifully printed three-volume
edition edited by Margherita Marchione, who teaches Italian literature
at Fairleigh Dickinson University. The documents are a selection from
3,000 items relating to Mazzei that Marchione and her associates
located in repositories around the world (Italy, the United States,
France, Poland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) and
collected in microform at the Salvatori Center for Mazzei Studies at
Fairleigh Dickinson University. 1 Published documents are arranged
chronologically. Vol. I deals with the United States, vol. II with
France and Poland, and vol. III with Mazzei's life in the Italian
1 Philip Mazzei. The Comprehensive Microform Edition of His Papers, 1730-1816:
Guide and Index, ed. Margherita Marchione and Barbara B. Oberg (Milwood, NY:
Kraus International Publications,1981).