Slips showing
Sir: Had your reviewer been able to list all the slips in Professor Mack Smith's History of Sicily he might have mentioned also the mis- takes about Vincenzo Florio of whom he says: 'Florio was a mainlander, born in Calabria, whose family had exiled itself to Sicily with the King. He began as a commercial traveller and according to general belief, made his first money by smuggling. He then set up a business in groceries.'
While it cannot be denied that fortunes were made by smuggling, especially during the Napo- leonic wars (and Vincenzo Florio was certainly too young then), Florio's fortune came from his uncle, Ignazio Florio, who owned a grocery business in Palermo which was already thriving when Vincenzo arrived as an infant in 1800. Vincenzo was made a partner in 1818.
Furthermore it is not true that it is generally believed that Vincenzo Florio's fortune came from smuggling. There is no rumour or tradi- tion to this effect, either in Marsala or Palermo, and this is a country where opportunities to create such traditions are never lost. Florio never had an English manager in Marsala, but he had Frenchmen to look after his brandy. Later the book says Florio was never accepted by the aloof aristocracy of Palermo. This is simply not true.
Had Professor Mack Smith inquired further into the situation at Palermo he would have discovered that the Florios were the leaders of the Palermo aristocracy, incidently twice re- fusing a title offered by the King of Italy, and the aristocracy attended the unveiling of Florio's statue in 1874.
Procuratore Generale Florio & C., Marsala, Sicily
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