The connection

What’s the connection between the Mattei family and the Pandolfini family? 
This is a recurring question from customers and friends: was Mattei your relative?
We think now is a good occasion to tell it even to our readers. There was no kinship between the two families.

The "CONNECTION" of our history, which is also the symbol of the continuity that binds us, has not only to do with the love for a profession, but also for a very important tradition in the city: the Prato loaf and consequently that of the Prato almond biscuits, known as cantucci or cantucci

Sign Antonio Mattei: "the producer of biscuits, cantucci and other kinds", as says the sign above our shop and laboratory in Via Ricasoli in Prato, the place where Mattei in the mid-19th century devised the recipe for Prato almond biscuits, known throughout the world as cantucci or cantuccini.

The name of the founder Antonio Mattei has been deliberately preserved both by his son Emilio, and by the Pandolfini family, who took over from the Mattei family in the early 1900s, now the fourth generation. But who was Antonio Mattei? The time has come to tell you all a few more details about the life of this simple man, of humble origins, but enterprising and far-sighted, and to share with you biographical information found by rummaging through the Tuscan historical archives.

Antonio Giuseppe Baldassar Mattei was born in Prato on 17th January, 1818 on the day dedicated to Saint Anthony (this is probably why his parents called him Antonio); son of Domenico Mattei, a baker by trade and Teresa Vannucchi, a seamstress by trade (a married couple from the community of Coiano), and that’s why we say that Antonio Mattei embodies the union of the two Prato traditions par excellence: that of bread and that of textiles.

On 19th January 1840 in the Church of S. Domenico, Antonio Mattei married Agnese Cipriani with whom he had 8 children but she unfortunately died in August 1852.
Antonio remarried to Felicita Rossi with whom he had three daughters (but all of them died at the age of one). As early as 1852 Antonio Mattei appears in the Parish Family Book of the Church of San Donato in San Francesco. What is the Parish Family Book? These are the registers in which the parish priests, on the occasion of the Easter blessing, reported who lived in each house, basically a sort of census: so we discovered that Antonio Mattei lived with his family in Casa Berti at no. 38, the building where the Biscuit Factory is still based.

The photographer Giorgio Wood, who opened his own photographic laboratory in Piazza San Francesco and to whom we owe the portrait of the founder of the biscuit factory still on display in our historic shop, also lived in the same building from 1878 to 1903. 

It is from this portrait that we get an idea of ​​what Antonio Mattei was like: he probably wore his best Sunday suit just to have that photo taken, his gaze is austere and goes beyond the lens, the same "visionary" look that led him to market his products outside the city.

Thanks to the resourcefulness of this baker from Prato, the original Prato Biscuits with almonds and Cantucci all'Anice recipes also spread outside Prato and were awarded at the National Expositions of Florence (1861), Pistoia (1870) and Forlì (1871) and also at international exhibitions such as London (1862) and Paris (1867).

Of the numerous children, only Emilio, Luigi and Cesare collaborated in their father's business, and in fact it was Emilio, the eldest, who took charge of the management of the factory and on the death of Antonio Mattei on 11th January 1885, Emilio was the only heir.

Emilio Mattei, despite marrying three times, had no children who survived him, which is why he decided to sell the biscuit factory to our great-grandfather Tommaso Pandolfini and to his partner Egisto Ciampolini, the historic flour suppliers for Mattei. 

Today January 17th is Antonio Mattei's birthday and, as we said previously, the feast of St. Antonio Abate, which we celebrate every year by churning out blessed little brioche bread (panini)! This year we have prepared the Panini di S. Antonio for customers of our Prato Shop over the weekend, because Monday coincides with the weekly rest shift ...
BUT today we have prepared a fun surprise to celebrate our Antonio Mattei:
Custom Biscottificio stickers are available for your Instagram Stories and social chats! 💙