Antonio Magliabecchi, the jeweller's shop-boy, became
renowned throughout the world for his abnormal knowledge of books. He
never at any time left Florence; but he read every catalogue that was
issued, and was in correspondence with all the collectors and librarians
of Europe. He was blessed with a prodigious memory, and knew all the
contents of a book by 'hunting it with his finger,' or once turning over
the pages. He was believed, moreover, to know the habitat of all the rare
books in the world; and according to the well-known anecdote he replied
to the Grand Duke, who asked for a particular volume: 'The only copy of
this work is at Constantinople, in the Sultan's library, the seventh
volume in the second book-case, on the right as you go in.' He has been
despised as 'a man who lived on titles and indexes, and whose very pillow
was a folio.' Dibdin declared that Magliabecchi's existence was confined
to 'the parade and pacing of a library'; but, as a matter of fact, the
old bibliomaniac lived in a kind of cave made of piles and masses of
books, with hardly any room for his cooking or for the wooden cradle
lined with pamphlets which he slung between his shelves for a bed. He
died in 1714, in his eighty-second year, dirty, ragged, and as happy as a
king; and certainly not less than eight thick volumes of sonnets and
epigrams appeared at once in his praise. He left about 30,000 volumes of
his own collecting, which he gave to the city upon condition that they
should be always free to the public.
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