Leo Olschki was born on 2 January 1861 in Johannisburg, a town in East Prussia,[1] into a family of Jewish printers.

In 1886 he founded the Leo S. Olschki publishing house in Verona, which was then moved to Venice and Florence (1897).

He also subsidized newspapers such as Giornale Dantesco and La Cultura, but during the First World War he moved to Geneva, in neutral territory.

In fact, Olschki did not have Italian citizenship, having kept a German passport, and was forced into exile.

For his work, he obtained such recognition as the appointment as Commander and Knight of the Grand Cross of the Crown of Italy,[4] but was again forced into exile due to racial laws, as a Jew.