During his adventurous life he fought with Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the war of American independence. Giacomo Caiani (the first Major of Poggio a Caiano, the area of Prato where Mazzei was born) helped to spread Filippo's fame in Italy and in the States; he kept his memory vivid and collected proof and historical artefacts. At the age of six, Mazzei went to school in Prato, firstly taking private lessons under the tuition of Carlantonio della Cima, then to a public schools. He studied Medicine at the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital, in Florence, and in his period of youth, practised this profession with notable success. From 1752 to 1755 he went to Asia with the Jewish doctor Salinas; and in 1756 he settled in London, left the medical profession and started to teach Italian. In London he knew Benjamin Franklin and other North Americans, with which he constituted a society to introduce the olive tree, the grapevine and the silkworm into America. On the 2nd of September 1773, he sailed from the port of Livorno for Virginia (where he arrived about three months later). In the "Virginia Gazzette" he used to write revolutionary articles with the pen name "Furioso" (Furious). With his friend Jefferson, he enlisted like simple soldier in the Independent Company of the Albemarle County. In 1779, he returned to France and then to Tuscany, where he supported the opportunity to begin economical intercourse with America, unfortunately with scarce success. The Grand Duke of Tuscany was convinced of the English victory over the Americans. In 1783, when the Independence war was over, he went back to Virginia where he adjourned for two years, intensifying the friendly relationships and became acquainted with intellectuals and politicians of this great new country. In 1788, Mazzei greeted the invitation by the King of Poland, to act as his ambassador in the French capital city. In 1791 he went to Warsaw; where he stayed breifly before returning to Tuscany. He settled in Pisa, where he died on the 19th of March 1816. He has published numerous articles and books on varied matters; the most important are: "Reecherches historiques ed politiques sur les Etat Unis de l'Amérique septentrionale" (in four volumes); and the "Memorie della vita e delle peregrinazioni di Filippo Mazzei". In one of the last letters he had written to his friend Jefferson he wrote: "The democracy, I mean a representative democracy, which each individual in a simple body understands, is for sure the only government under which it is possible to enjoy a genuine and lasting freedom".