Bernardi

University of Padua engineer Enrico Zeno Bernardi developed compact petrol engines from the early 1880s, first powering workshop machinery and a child's tricycle before creating a practical three-wheel automobile in 1894. The surviving vehicle placed a water-cooled 624 cc single-cylinder engine ahead of its single rear wheel and incorporated unusually advanced carburetion, automatic lubrication, tubular cooling, bearings and controls; it could reach about 35 km/h. Bernardi joined his former students Giacomo Miari and Francesco Giusti del Giardino to industrialize the design. Their Padua concern was formally organized as Miari, Giusti & C. in 1896 and became the first Italian enterprise to manufacture petrol automobiles for sale. After that company was dissolved in 1899, Bernardi continued as Società Italiana Bernardi. The range retained the 3½ HP tricar and added four-wheel cars rated 2½, 4½ and 6 HP. The smaller quadricycle used a tubular-steel chassis and could be ordered with four distinct bodies, from a two-seat petit-duc to a four-seat char-à-bancs. Bernardi left the enterprise and Aldo Bibolini succeeded him as designer, but production ended with financial failure in 1901. The catalog treats the changes in corporate name as one Bernardi marque lineage and separates it from the unrelated American Blakely Bernardi model and Bernardi Auto Works.

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