Ferrari engineer and dedicated car historian Kees van Stokkum is about to publish a most thorough article with lots of new facts on the very first years of Enzo climbing his own designed marketing ladder. From the time Enzo describes himself as "a crying jobless poor half-had orphan on a bench in a Turin park".
While many bookshelves can be filled with books about Enzo and the fabulous cars he created, there are very few that focus on the very beginning of his business career. With surgical precision Van Stokkum has examined hundreds of books and articles on the subject. Based on what he learned he spent many weeks in the archives of Modena and surroundings and found lots of new historical material shedding new light on the early years. While there are many good and very good books, there are also many titles that merely refrase of what's earlier said. A nice trace to distinguish those is the name of one of Enzo's first employers (in 1919) Mr. Giovannoni (10 letters) as mentioned various times by Enzo (like in the biography Ferrari 80); translators of the book misspelled the name as Giovanni (8 letters). One can find this Giovanni in various later publications; slighly embarrassing at the least.
Regarding the first years Enzo has not been very clear in various interviews. This has been accounted for by at least two historians. Eraldo Sculati brought up the subject in the weekly Auto Italiana in a review of the book 'Le Mie Gioie Terribili' in 1963. Giulio Schmidt, author of The Roaring Races refers to an interview he had with Enzo. EF mentions that in 1920 he was near the Modenesa Via Fallopia nr. 2 and saw an advertising sign for FERT spark plugs and was surprised to discover that the agents for that make were E. Ferrari and G. Manzini. "In reality I was not involved with that venture". Giulio Schmidt interest was triggered by and advert in a local newspaper showing E.Ferrari - G. Manzoni. Of course this may have been a spontaneous gesture of Manzini and recognition for Enzo as found in Ferrari Rex by Luca Del Monte, but...
Van Stokkum has found adverts from Manzini without and with Enzo Ferrari, and now comes the hot cake. Had Enzo completely forgotten how he had started his local business in Modena? Or did he want to hide the truth, for whatever reason? (...) At 25 April 1920 Enzo with a companion Guido Manzini had registered
an enterprise at the Modenese Chamber of Commerce (File No. 10095). They had set up a shop at the Via Fallopia, Modena. 
The partners represented FERT spark plugs, Moto Garelli motorcycles and C.M.N. motorcars. This is shown by various adverts of the period before and after the registration. Interestingly the official cooperation between Manzini and Ferrari lasted only 16 days! At the 11th May of the same year 1920 the Chamber of Commerce was requested to dissolve the company. Manzini found a new business partner. And as of the 1st of June EF went on with his own business 'Enzo Ferrari' (C.of C. File Nr. 10123) in the Via Pioppa.It's a lovely detailed article which reads like a good video documentary. The full article including much-much more will appear in the March edition of Ferrari Marketletter.
Alfa Romeo historian Simon Moore commented after a pre-read of the article: "Fabulous research!" and for those interested also added that Adolfo Orsi did some research into this period (focussing on Carrozzeria Emilia). There is an English language version of this article in the SAH Journal 273 (March/April 2015)
(with many thanks to Kees van Stokkum to grant us this prepublication, JB.
A preview of the first section of the article is to be found under Read More)