Felice Matteucci's hometown
Felice Matteucci was born in Lucca, in Piazza del Giglio, in the 14th-century palace now known as the Arnolfini Palace, but originally belonging to the Franciotti family. The palace underwent significant renovations in the 17th and 20th centuries.
He was baptized in the small church of Santa Maria Rotonda inside the Doge's Palace, as his father was Minister of Justice to the Grand Duke Felice Baciocchi.
Felice Matteucci attended theUniversity of Lucca (1823/24), now the site of the Classical High School, passing exams in rhetoric and arithmetic and taking geometry courses. He continued his studies at the Royal Bourbon College in Paris and completed them in Florence.
Matteucci's life is not very tied to his hometown, since the scholar moved with his father to Paris at the age of 16 (in 1824), he completed his studies in hydraulics and mechanics in Florence and subsequently lived first in the country house of Compito Hill, then in that of Raven, in the Lucca area, dedicating himself above all to the project for the drainage of Lake Sesto.
Only in recent years have the city and the institutions rediscovered the figure and role of Matteucci in the invention of the internal combustion engine; the only commemorative initiatives are the placing, in 1932, of a plaque on the facade of his birthplace in Lily Square in Lucca, restored in 2025 thanks to the Barsanti and Matteucci Foundation; the placing of a plaque at the entrance of the Villa of Vorno, on the occasion of the centenary of the invention of the internal combustion engine, and the ceremony at Villa Bottini, on the occasion of the first centenary of his death.
Felice Matteucci's birthplace
in Lucca, Piazza del Giglio
Plaque dedicated to Felice Matteucci
restored in 2025
Country house in Colle di Compito
Felice Matteucci's youthful residence, where he often returned to find the peace he needed after great disappointments. The villa has undergone major transformations and today, almost unrecognizable, stands among the houses of Colle di Compito.
Vorno Country House
Situated within a large enclosure, the villa is characterised by a rather unusual layout as it is perpendicular to the surrounding wall and eccentric to the access road. The construction dates back to the 17th – 18th century, as evidenced by the shape and size of the stone frames at the doors and windows; of particular interest is the garden arranged and organised according to traditional geometries and the small eighteenth-century chapel dedicated to the Saints Anna e SimeonThe villa was purchased by the Matteucci family in the early 19th century; here Matteucci spent some particularly sad times due to the difficulties encountered in building the engine and in establishing the companies that would ensure its diffusion and development.
Matteucci's villa in Vorno
and the plaque dedicated to him
Hometown of Father Eugenio Barsanti
Despite the short time he spent in Pietrasanta, Father Barsanti always maintained close ties with the city and his family, so much so that his first Mass was celebrated there on the last Sunday of September 1845. The city reciprocated the scholar's attachment, as demonstrated by the grandeur of the funeral held on June 10, 1864, in the Church of Sant'Agostino, with the participation of the City Council and the National Guard, and the events organized in 1921 on the occasion of the centenary of his birth and annually from 1927 to 1939, with the aim of claiming and publicizing the primacy of the invention of the internal combustion engine.
As early as 1933, the Municipal Administration had arranged for a street to be named after Father Eugenio Barsanti.
In 1954, the exhibition on the internal combustion engine organised for the first centenary of the invention (1853 – 1953) by the Municipality of Pietrasanta, with the patronage of the National Automobile Museum and the co-participation of Fiat, was particularly appreciated and important.
Birthplace of Father Barsanti
Eugenio Barsanti's birthplace is located at Via Mazzini 77. A plaque is affixed to the facade.
Pious Schools
At the age of six, Nicolò Barsanti began his studies at the Pious Schools of Pietrasanta, which he attended with excellent results until the age of 17, obtaining his high school diploma.
The schools were opened in 1819 at the behest of Ferdinand III of Lorraine in the complex of the former convent of Sant'Agostino and were directed by the Piarist Fathers.
Church of Sant'Agostino
The church, of Gothic origin and layout, is linked to some salient moments in the life of Father Barsanti: here he celebrated the first Mass after the ordination and especially here, on June 10, 1864, “a large number of people gathered to pay solemn tribute to the memory of their friend and fellow citizen.”
In 1933, a statue was placed in the church of Sant'Agostino commemorative bust by Barsanti, sculpted by Leone Tommasi; the bust was later transferred to the scholar's tomb in Florence, in the church of Santa Croce, and replaced with a copy made by the sculptor's sons.
Plaque on the facade of the house where Father Barsanti was born
in Pietrasanta
Church and Convent of Sant'Agostino
in Pietrasanta
Bust and tombstone of P. Barsanti
in the church of St. Augustine in Pietrasanta
Barsanti moved to Volterra in 1841 to teach physics and mathematical sciences at the college of San Michele. The institute was attended "by students from all over Italy, by patricians and by the common people of Volterra..."; among these, we remember in particular Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti, who first became archbishop of Imola and later pope with the name of Pius IX.
It was in this college that, from the spring of 1843, the “little teacher”, as the students called him, began his experiments with the Volta's pistol And it was here that the idea of transforming the natural explosion of a detonating mixture into motive power was born. This force, regulated and transformed into "useful work," would alleviate human toil.
The prototype of Volta's pistol made by P. Barsanti in the college's laboratory, initially preserved at the "Inghirami" school in Volterra, is now located in the civic Museum, always in Volterra
Florence It was the seat of the study, research and experimentation activities of the two inventors of the internal combustion engine.
The Piarists, the Pious Schools, the Ximenian Observatory
Nicolò Barsanti, firmly determined to become a Piarist, left Pietrasanta on 17 July 1838 to go to Florence, where he would complete his novitiate in the Order. Domus Formationis The Piarist Church was located on Via Bolognese, in the locality of Il Pellegrino, an ancient village so named for the presence of a hospice for pilgrims coming from Bologna. The hospice was managed by the Community of the Pilgrim, made up mainly of Religious; in 1638 the Piarists settled in the building, which they used for the religious formation of their novices, and remained there until 1870. The church, the only example of pure Baroque art in the city, is still managed by the Piarists today.
After finishing his novitiate, Barsanti continued his preparation at S. Giovannino, where the House of the Piarists of FlorenceThe complex was built on behalf of the Jesuits by Ammannati towards the end of the 500th century. Two centuries later, in 1756, the Jesuit Leonardo Ximenes he had built a modest astronomical observatory on the top of the building.
The building, abandoned by the Jesuits in 1773, was purchased by the Piarists. The Piarist Domus Formationis and the Piarist Schools were thus moved from Via de' Cimatori to the current Via Martelli in 1775.
After a period in Volterra, in 1849 Father Barsanti returned to Florence in San Giovannino at the Pious Schools, where he was appointed professor of mathematics and physics. In 1852, he was appointed lecturer in mechanics and hydraulics at the Ximenian Observatory.
While the Ximenian Observatory has never changed location since its foundation, the Pious Schools moved from Via Martelli to Via del Corso in 1878 and subsequently, in 1920, to their current location at Via Cavour 94.
The Georgofili Academy
The Accademia dei Georgofili (from the Greek “lovers of the earth”), since its foundation on 4 June 1753, represented for Florence a scientific institution of high prestige e reliabilityIt was founded by the Lateran Canon Ubaldo Montelatici, with the aim of "continuously and carefully regulated experiments and observations, to perfect the highly beneficial art of Tuscan cultivation." From 1802 to 1932 the Academy's headquarters were in Via Ricasoli. In 1932 it was moved to its current location, in the ancient Pulci Tower, with entrance from the Loggiato degli Uffizi Corti.
The Pietro Benini Foundry
It was founded in 1842 by Pasquale Benini in partnership with Tommaso Michelagnoli, in the Pignone district, just outside Porta San Frediano; shortly thereafter, management passed to Pasquale's son, Pietro Benini.
Starting in 1853, the experimental devices and the first prototypes of Barsanti and Matteucci's engines were built here.
The Benini Foundry
in the B&M era
Maria Antonia Railway Station
As far as we know, the first engines, of the delayed action type, were built by the Benini Foundry in Florence (now Nuovo Pignone), located beyond the gate of S. Frediano.
The second engine, of type twin cylinder, was put into operation in 1856 in the workshops of the M. Antonia station, inaugurated in 1851 following the completion of the Florence-Prato-Pistoia railway line and demolished to build the current Santa Maria Novella station. The engine ran smoothly and powered a drill and a shear.
Barsanti and Matteucci New Engine Limited Company
In order to obtain funding for the construction of their engines, Barsanti and Matteucci formed an association, which they transformed into a fully-fledged joint-stock company on October 14, 1859, to legally exploit their projects. The company, which took the name of Barsanti and Matteucci New Engine Limited Company, was located on Via Sant'Agostino, across the Arno, at the end of Piazza Santo Spirito, to the right as far as Via de' Serragli. The laboratory for assembling, fine-tuning, and testing the engines was located in Canto de' Nelli, on the right side of the church of San Lorenzo, very close to the Observatory.
Leopolda Railway Station at Porta a Prato
On November 2, 1861, 14 crates containing a “new” direct-action engine built by the Escher Wyss workshops in Zurich, designed by Barsanti, Matteucci and Babacci, arrived in Livorno.
The engine was intended for the 1st Italian Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures which was held in Florence in the same year 1861.
For the occasion, the old Leopolda railway station at Porta a Prato, which had been disused for several years, was renovated and its spacious rooms displayed period artifacts and works of art, including the internal combustion engine built by Escher. The station is currently used for the same purpose, that is, as the site of exhibitions and displays.
Maria Antonia station
in the B&M era
The Leopolda station
in the B&M era
Campi Bisenzio (FI) - Villa Alla Marina
The Villa now Montalvo was one of the Florentine residences of Felice Matteucci after his marriage to Giulia Ramirez de Montalvo.
The villa is mentioned for the first time in a document of the June 2, 1305 and belonged to the Tornaquinci family; it later became the property of the Del Sodo family, then the Spinelli family, and finally, in the early 500th century, the Medici family. In 1570, Antonio de Montalvo, on the advice of Cosimo de' Medici, purchased the villa, and for over three centuries the Montalvos called the Campi property "their countryside."
We don't know how much time the Matteucci family actually spent here, given Felice's many commitments: at Villa Montalvo, the couple left, as per tradition, an inscription of their names on the columns of the farm's internal courtyard.
In the villa, “men of science, physicists, mathematicians, and teachers of mechanics and hydraulics alternated in the study of the young engineer from Lucca, such as the young Piarist Father Eugenio Barsanti, with whom Felice Matteucci had already established a close collaboration.”
Felice Matteucci is buried in the villa's chapel, as attested by the funerary stone.
The Municipal Administration of Campi Bisenzio has recently purchased and restored the villa, in honor and memory of the illustrious citizen, former city councilor between 1865 and 1875, after whom the middle school and a street are named.
Villa Montalvo and the chapel
in Campi Bisenzio
The tomb of Felice Matteucci
in the Montalvo chapel