362 
ANTHONY MAGLIABECHI. 
that he was very uneasy in his business, and should be the happiest 
creature in the world, if he could live with him, who had always so 
many books behind him.’^ The bookseller, pleased with his answer, 
consented to take him, if his master was willing to part with him. 
Young Magliabechi thanked him with tears in his eyes, and having 
obtained his master’s leave, went directly to his new employment, 
which he had not followed long, before he could find any book that 
was asked for as readily as the bookseller himself. 
, This account of his early life, which Mr. Spence received from a 
gentleman of Florence who was well acquainted with Magliabechi 
and his family, differs considerably from that given by Nueron, 
Firaboschi, and Fabroni. From the latter, indeed, we learn that he 
was placed as an apprentice to a goldsmith, after he had been taught 
the principles of drawing, and he had a brother that was educated 
for the law, and made a considerable figure in his profession. His 
father died, while he was an infant, but Fabroni makes no mention of 
his poverty. It seems agreed, however, that after he had learned to 
read, that became his sole employment, but he never applied himself 
to any particular study. He read every book almost indid'erently, as 
it happened to come to his hands, with a surprising quickness ; and 
yet such was his prodigious memory, that lie not only retained the 
sense of what he read, but often all the w ords, and the very manner 
of spelling them, if there was any thing peculiar of that kind in any 
author. 
His extraordinary application and talents soon recommended liim 
to Ermini, librarian to the cardinal de Medicis, and to Marmi, the 
grand duke’s librarian, who introduced him into the company of the 
literati, and made him known at court. Every where he began to be 
looked upon as a prodigy, particularly for his vast and unbounded 
memory, of which many remarkable anecdotes have been given. A 
gentleman at Florence, who had written a piece that was to be 
printed, lent the manuscript to Magliabechi, and some time after 
it had been returned with thanks, came to him again with the story 
of a pretended accident by which be had lost his manuscript. The 
author seemed inconsolable, and intreated Magliabechi, whose charac- 
ter for remembering what he had read was already very great, to try 
to recollect as much of it as he possibly could, and write it down for 
him against his next visit. Magliabechi assured him he would, and 
wrote down the whole ms. without missing a word, or even varying 
any where from the spelling. Whatever our readers may think of this 
trial of his memory, it is certain that by treasuring up at least the 
subject and the principal part of all the books he ran over, his head 
became at last, as one of his acquaintance expresses it to Mr. Spence, 
** an universal index both of titles and matter.” 
By these means Magliabechi became so famous for the vast extent 
of his reading, and his amazing retention of what he had read, that 
he was frequently consulted by the learned, when meditating a work 
on any subject. For example, (and a curious example it is,) if a priest 
was going to compose a panegyric on any saint, and came to consult 
Magliabechi, he w’ould immediately tell him who had said anything of 
that saiat^ and in what part of their work, and that sometimes to the 
