The name of Alfred Mantegani was first brought to the attention of historians of Italians in Australia in 1963 when the Italian-language newspaper 'La Fiamma' dedicated a Supplement to the Italian community in Adelaide, in which Mantegani was presented as the earliest Italian to settle in South Australia. Since then, historians of Australia's Italians have drawn on this newspaper article to add Mantegani's name to the list of Australia's early Italian merchants and professionals or to categorise him officially as "the first Italian [in South Australia] whose presence merited mention in early records" (Dennis 1974, Randazzo-Cigler 1987). Neither of these descriptions of Mantegani is accurate
