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CHAPTER XIII.
LATER COLLECTORS: FRANCE--ITALY--SPAIN.
We have still to notice one or two of Grolier's contemporaries, who may
be classed as great book-collectors of an old-fashioned type. They knew
the whole history of 'the Book,' and were themselves the owners of
exquisite treasures, which are now hoarded up as the choicest remains of
antiquity. But their function was not so much to collect books as rare
and curious objects as to undertake the duty of saving the records of
past history from destruction. They did the work in their day which has
now devolved upon the guardians of public and national libraries. No
private person could now take their place; but the interests of
literature could hardly have been protected in a former age without the
personal labour and enthusiasm of Orsini and Petau.
Fulvio Orsini was born in 1529. He began life as a beggar, though for
many years before his death he was the leader of Italian learning. A poor
girl had been abandoned with her child and was forced to beg her bread in
the streets of Rome. The boy obtained a place in the Lateran when he was
only seven years old: the Canon Delfini recognised his precocious talents
and undertook to find him a classical education. The student obtained
some small preferment, and succeeded to his patron's appointment. His
marvellous acquaintance with ancient books secured him a place as
librarian to the Cardinal Farnese, and he received many offers of more
lucrative employment: but he found that if he accepted he would have to
live away from Rome; and he refused everything that could cause
inconvenience to his mother, whose comfort was his constant care.
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