The whole remaining stock was found some
years afterwards in a mouldy garret, packed in ninety bales; and it was
purchased at last for 3000 crowns by Cardinal Frederic Borromeo, who
used it as the basis for the Ambrosian Library which he was at that time
establishing in Milan. Another library was afterwards founded at Venice
by members of the Pinelli family engaged in the Levantine trade. On the
death of its last possessor, Maffeo Pinelli, in 1787, the collection was
sold to a firm of English booksellers. It seems by Dibdin's account to
have been in a poor condition, though Dr. Harwood declared that, 'there
being no dust in Venice,' it had reposed for some centuries in excellent
preservation. This immense body of books was re-sold in London two years
afterwards at prices which barely covered the expenses incurred, though a
large amount was obtained for a copy of the Polyglott Bible of Ximenes in
six folio volumes printed upon vellum.
The praises of the great Pinelli were spread abroad by Scaliger, De Thou,
and Casaubon; but his memory, perhaps, has been best preserved by the
ardent friendship of Peiresc. He was visited at Padua by the young
philosopher in whose mind he found a reflection of his own; and it was
generally agreed that the lamp of learning had passed into safe hands
when it was yielded by Pinelli to the student from Provence. Nicolas
Fabry de Peiresc belonged to an ancient family established near Aix. His
father had been selected by Louis XII.
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