Being it built a few months before Karl Benz's one, Domenico Calore is also the first man in the automotive history to build a body for a self-moving, combustion-engine-propelled vehicle.
1894 is nine years after Carl Benz' first test drives, and eight years after Gottlieb Daimler ordered the coach at Wagenbaufabrik Wilhelm Wimpff & Sohn for his first Motorkutsche.
You are right. I made I mistake.
Prof. Bernardi indeed built his first tricycle in 18
84, a few months before Benz.
But going deeper into the coachbuilding side of the story, it would be hard to believe that any coachbuilder actually contributed, as this first vehicle is very basic, without a real body: just a board with wheels and engine.
So, when Calore is said to "have coachbuilt all Prof. Bernardi's vehicles" I would rather guess we could consider only the serial production, that indeed begun in 18
94, after some further experiments.
Therefore, Domenico Calore is for sure the first one to have coachbuilt a car completely made in Italy.
The first car sold in Italy was a Peugeot Type 3. It was assembled in late 1892 by Costruzioni Meccaniche di Saronno, but I believe that the body was coming from France, as all the other parts.
Giuseppe Ricordi begun importing the Benz Velo in 1894 and having them bodied (before establishing his own coach-building workshop, in 1898) by Belloni.
Who was the first? I'd say anyway Calore, as he started cooperating with Bernardi years before Ricordi displayed in Milan the first Benz, but I'll dig more to be sure.