GUGLIELMO LIBRI. 177 



impressed by M. Libri, but from his agony of mind and 

 imperfect knowledge of English, it was a difficult matter M. Libri 

 to get at particulars of his case. Gradually facts were Fren^Go 

 brought forward and documents produced. The one most verument - 

 patent fact, attested by M. Guizot, then Prime Minister, 

 that M. Libri had offered all his books and manuscripts to 

 the French nation, on condition that they should be kept 

 together and called by his name, was a sufficient pre- 

 sumption of his innocence to lead to the belief that 

 further proof would be forthcoming; for no one would 

 believe that books, stolen from a public library, would be 

 openly placed there by the very man who had abstracted 

 them. M. Libri became our attached and valued friend, 

 always recognising a firm and able defender in my 

 husband, whose articles in the Athenceum and elsewhere 

 were the means of establishing a belief in his innocence in 

 England. Some reference to the political relations of 

 France and Italy will throw light upon the persecution 

 he, an Italian, experienced from the French Government; 

 but the political condition of France, on which he expressed 

 himself very openly, helped to determine the events of 

 his life. 



He was born in 1800, of a noble Tuscan family, and 

 was made Professor of Mathematics in the University of 

 Pisa when twenty years old. Being looked upon as a 

 Liberal by the Government, he was forbidden to remain 

 in Italy, which he had left on a visit to Paris in 1830. 

 He returned to Paris, where he was naturalised, and in 

 1833 was made a member of the Institute, holding 

 among other appointments that of Inspector of the 

 Royal Libraries and Mathematical Professor in the 

 Sorbonne. His History of the Mathematical Sciences in 

 Italy, in four volumes, is spoken of by Mr. De Morgan 

 as a great work. But he did not confine himself to 

 scientific work ; he helped the cause of Louis Philippe 

 by his writings, opposed the Jesuits both in their 

 French and Italian schemes, and gained the enmity of 



