Fenzi was nineteen when his father, judge and jurist Cav. Jacopo Orazio Fenzi (1745–1803), died. Upon the loss of his father, he began to provide for the family. Having already proved himself a worthy entrepreneur under his fathers guidance, Count Fenzi acquired in 1805 the management of Bosi, Mazzarelli & Co., his entrepreneurial sense was rewarded by the economic success of the company.
Bust of Emanuele Fenzi in Palazzo Fenzi by Lorenzo Bartolini
In 1810, he bought a building on Corso dei Tintori and married the daughter of a Milanese aristocrat and merchant Countess Ernesta Paffetta dei Lamberti; they had four children. The same year with some fellow members of Bosi, Mazzarelli & Co he founded Bosi, Mazzarelli & Co., specializing in the manufacture and sale of tobacco and gained the monopole of the tobacco industry within the Grand Duchy of Tuscany between 1814 and 1820.
By 1821, Fenzi established the Banca Fenzi, which was soon to branch out all over Italy and Europe. He opened a branch in Piazza della Signoria and from 1829 it acquired a Palazzo on Via San Gallo that was to become the Palazzo Fenzi, that had been put up for sale after the extinction of the Marucelli family.
The Livorno banking house of Senn joined with the Florentine firm of Fenzi to secure the concession for the Strada Ferrata Leopolda, designed to link Leghorn with Florence by way of Empoli, and the line was begun in 1841, to be finished ultimately in June 1848. By 1845 the desire for a network of railways had led, according to one estimate, to sixteen projects which lay on the grand duke's desk for consideration.
Fenzi was also an investor in the Tuscan steel industry and had owned the Gavorrano mine, the Mammiano ironworks on the Pistoia Apennines, and was a shareholder of the "Società per l'Industria del Ferro".[3]
In 1835 Fenzi seized the opportunity to finance the planned construction of the railway line between Florence and the port of Livorno, the Leopold railway, with the contractor Swiss French Pierre Senn of Livorno, hence entering into a contract with the Grand Ducal government in 1838. The railway was one of the first in Italy and was named Leopolda in honour of the Grand Duke Leopold II of Lorraine.
He had a career as a politician as member of the Tuscan Senate between 1848 and 1849 and was among the biggest supporters of the return of the Grand Duke in Tuscany. After the fall of the Grand Duke he became senator of the new Kingdom of Italy in 1860, having sworn loyalty to the new government.[4]
Gabbrielli, Carlo (1875). Cenni Biografici del Senatore Emanuele Fenzi [Biographical notes of Senator Emanuele Fenzi] (in Italian). Florence: Stabilimento Pellas. OCLC23694689.
Mori, Giorgio (1966). L'Industria del Ferro in Toscana Dalla Restaurazione Alla Fine del Granducato [The Iron Industry in Tuscany From the Restoration to the End of the Grand Duchy]. Archivo Economico dell'Unificazione Italiana (in Italian). Vol. 13. Turin: Industria Libraria Tipografica Editrice, S.p.A. OCLC1071237001.
"'Scheda Senatore' → 'Fenzi, Emanuele'" ['Senator Card' → 'Fenzi, Emanuel']. Senatori d'Italia → Senatori del Regno (1848–1943) [Senators of Italy → Senators of the Kingdom (1848–1943)] (online) (in Italian). Rome: L'Archivio Storico del Senato. 2003. Retrieved March 9, 2021 – via Senato.it. The entry for Sen. Fenzi is not dated; but the Historical Archive of the Senate was launched online in 2003.
Further reading
Bigazzi, Isabella; Ciuffoletti, Zeffiro[in Italian] (2002). Palazzo Marucelli Fenzi: Guida Storico-Artistica [Palazzo Marucelli Fenzi: Historical-Artistic Guide]. Florence: Polistampa. pp. 233–242. ISBN8-8830-4430-4. OCLC50063847. ISBN978-8-8830-4430-4. Presentazione di Paolo Blasi e Augusto Marinelli. "Archivio Fenzi". Filza 5, ins. 3, n. 56, n.c.
Giuntini, Andrea (2002). Soltanto Per Denaro – La vita, gli affari, la ricchezza di Emanuele Fenzi negoziante banchiere Fiorentino nel Granducato di Toscana (1784–1875) [For Money Only – Life, Business, Wealth of Emanuele Fenzi, Florentine merchant banker in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (1784–1875)] (hardcover). Nuove Ricerche di Storia: II série, 2 (in Italian). Florence: Edizioni Polistampa. ISBN8-8830-4427-4. OCLC470242384. ISBN978-8-8830-4427-4.
Rotondi, Clementine, ed. (1956). "Archivio Fenzi" [Fenzi Archive]. Archivio Storico Italiano [News from the Tuscan Archives] (in Italian). Tuscany: Casa Editrice Leo S. Olschki s.r.l. pp. 320–682. ISSN2036-4660. Papers of Emanuele Orazio Fenzi (1843–1924), a grandson known in the United States as Francesco Franceschi. The papers were donated around 1955–1956 to the Biblioteca e Archivio del Risorgimento. Documents span 1851 to 1923: travel diaries, translations, copies of agricultural writings, critical bibliography of Libya (1867–1922); letters from family and others to Emanuele Orazio Fenzi; correspondence between Emanuele Orazio Fenzi and Gino Bartolommei Gioli (1912–1923), 6 pieces. Rotondi, the bibliographer, was, at the time, working at the National Union Catalog Center (Petrucciani, Alberto. "Rotondi, Clementina".Dizionario Bio-Bibliografico Dei Bibliotecari Italiani Del XX Secolo. Retrieved March 4, 2021).
