Fenzi

The Fenzi Bank and family were key players in both the economic growth of the Italian industrial revolution and the expansion of the north Italian Railways between Florence and Livorno in 18th and 19th century Italy.

The old Florentine aristocratic family produced several generations of noteworthy citizens who enhanced and enabled many different aspects of both the Florentine political life and economic market during the 17th, 18th and 19th century. Although the origins of the Fenzi family can be traced back to the Italian Renaissance, it was not until the mid 17th century that the fortune of the family was to become as substantial as the name Fenzi during the 18th and 19th century. The main founder of the Fenzi dynasty was Francesco Fenzi, who became financial adviser and creditor to the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo of Tuscany at the end of the 17th century; from that point onwards the family fortunes were to rise in connection with the financing of both private and public initiatives. The Fenzi family was to benefit from all the notable privileges of the nobility such as tax exemptions granted by the favors of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

One of the most successful Fenzis was Cavalier Emanuele Fenzi 1784 - 1875, elder son of Cavalier Jacopo Orazio Fenzi, a Magistrate in the Florentine courts. By 1805 Emanuele had already established himself as a successful entrepreneur working for Bosi, Mazzarelli & C. By 1810 his reputation and talent as an entrepreneur were so well recognized in the trade that he decided to set up his own firm la Bandi, Orsi, Fenzi & C. making and selling tobacco. In this same year he acquired a Palazzo in the centre of Florence, where he set up his headquarters. By 1820 the tobacco industry had grown to such an extent due to Emanuele's entrepreneurial initiatives and the extension of trade in Italy and Europe that by 1821 Emanuele had accumulated enough wealth to establish the Fenzi Bank. By 1829 the Bank was established in what today known as the Fenzi Palace via San Gallo, one of the best addresses in Florence. In 1860 Emanuele Fenzi became Senator. He later built the Palazzo Fenzi on Piazza della Signoria (designed by Giuseppi Martelli), and now the Assicurazioni Generali. Here Emanuele Fenzi raised his grandson, the noted horticulturist Emanuele Orazio Fenzi.

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