On 15 March 1921, in the office of notary public Paolo Cassanello, the “Società Anonima Moto Guzzi" company was established in Genoa, for the "manufacture and sale of motorcycles and all other related activity in the metalworking industry". The partners setting up the new enterprise were Emanuele Vittorio Parodi, a well-known Genoese shipowner, his son Giorgio and his friend Carlo Guzzi; Parodi and Guzzi had served in the Italian Air Force together with Brescia-born Giovanni Ravelli, a pilot killed on 11 August 1919 during a test flight and remembered by the founding partners with the winged eagle, the symbol chosen for the new company and soon to become famous all over the world as the Moto Guzzi emblem.
