Background
Antonio di Marco Magliabechi was born on October 29, 1633, at Florence, to Marco Magliabechi and Ginevra Baldorietta.
Librarian bibliophile scholars
Antonio di Marco Magliabechi was born on October 29, 1633, at Florence, to Marco Magliabechi and Ginevra Baldorietta.
The family could not afford the son even an elementary education, as a teenager he became an assistant of a bookseller.
Then Magliabechi was apprenticed to a goldsmith, and worked in this capacity until his fortieth year, Michele Ermini, librarian to Cardinal de' Medici, recognized his academic ability and taught him Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
In 1673 he became librarian to Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Magliabechi became the central figure of literary life in Florence, and scholars of every nation sought his acquaintance and corresponded with him. Whilst this eminent post gave him considerable prominence, he is remembered more for his personal characteristics and his vast store of self-acquired learning.
His own library consisted of 40, 000 books and 10, 000 manuscripts. His house literally overflowed with books; the stairways were lined with them, and they even filled the front porch.
Antonio Magliabechi died on July 4, 1714, at the age of 81, at the monastery of Sta. Maria Novella. He left his books to the Grand Duke to be used as a public library; his fortune went to the poor. His library, known as the "Magliabechiana", was combined with the grand-ducal private library by Victor Emmanuel II of Italy in 1861, the two forming the core of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Firenze.
Antonio Magliabechi has been described as a literary glutton, and the most rational of bibliomaniacs, inasmuch as he read everything he bought.
Magliabechi also was extremely negligent. Reputedly, he once even forgot to draw his salary for over a year. He wore his clothes until they fell from him, and thought it a great waste of time to undress at night, "life being so short and books so plentiful".
He spent some hours in each day at the palace library. His dinner was commonly three hard-boiled eggs, with a draught of water.