A native of Livorno, he studied mathematics at the University and Normal School of Higher Studies in Pisa under the guidance of Enrico Betti (1823-1892) and Ulisse Dini (1845-1918). A few years after graduating in 1891, he was appointed to the Chair of Projective and Descriptive Geometry at the University of Bologna and, in 1922, he was called upon to occupy the Chair of Higher Mathematics in Rome. Of Jewish origin, he was forced to leave this position in 1938 when the laws on race were issued. He was able to return to this position again only a few months prior to his death. One of the founders of the Italian school of algebraic geometry, Enriques extended the horizons of scientific debate, focussing also on philosophy and the history of science. In 1907 he founded the international review Scientia and in 1911, as president of the Italian Philosophical Society, founded by him in 1906, he organised the IV International Congress of Philosophy at Bologna. From 1922 to 1934 he was president of the Italian Mathesis Society, of which he directed, up to 1946, the Periodico di Matematiche [Periodical of Mathematics]. He also collaborated on the Enciclopedia Italiana, supervising the editing of the section on mathematics.