Magliabechi, ANTONIO

Magliabechi, ANTONIO, bibliophile, was born at Florence in 1633, and till his fortieth year was a goldsmith. From youth upwards, however, he displayed an inordinate passion for the acquisition of book-knowledge; and, having mastered Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, he literally entombed himself among books, of which disorderly piles encumbered every portion of his dwelling. In his daily habits he grew regardless of the decencies of life; and such was his avidity of study that he finally denied himself even the requisite intervals of repose. His memory was prodigious, and enabled him not only minutely to retain the contents of his multitudinous books, but also to supply, on occasion, the most exact reference to any particular page or paragraph, the place of each book being indicated with precision in the midst of their seemingly inextricable masses. Magliabechi was regarded as the literary prodigy of his times. In 1673 he was appointed court-librarian by the Grand-duke of Tuscany; and the many tributes of respect tendered by royal and distinguished personages to his wonderful erudition fostered in an inordinate degree his love of fame and praise, which rendered him intolerant of literary merit in others, and involved him in several bitter literary squabbles. He died at Florence on 4th July 1714, leaving no written record of his immense encyclopedic knowledge. His valuable library of 30,000 vols. he bequeathed to the Grand-duke, who made it over to the city of Florence; it is now a free library, and bears the name of its collector. See John Hill Burton's Book-Hunter (1862).