ANTONIO MAGLIABECCHI, LIBRARIAN AT FLORENCE

GENNARO, Maria Antonio de: Italy, 1710, Bronze, 45 mm
Obv: Bust of Magliabecchi    ANTONIVS MAGLIABECHIVS FLORENTINVS
Rev: Magliabecchi, seated beneath a tree in garden reading, with books on the ground and Philosopher (or beggar) in the background    SCIRE NOSTRVM REMINISCI (Remember Our Knowledge)
Signed:  ANT. DE IANVARIO F
Ref: Molinari 53/186; Forrer II, p.240 (ill);  Europese Penningen # 1462;  Gaetani, Museum Mazzucchellianum II, 233; Rizzini I, 163, 1095;  Thieme-Becker 13, p. 394;  Weiss BW139

Antonio Magliabecchi (also Magliabechi) (1633-1714), the son of Marco Magliabecchi, burgher, and Ginevra Baldorietta, was a scholar and Granducal Librarian to Cosimo III de'Medici. Although Magliabecchi 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. Magliabecchi had an astonishing memory and acquired an unusual amount of knowledge. In 1673 he became librarian to Grand Duke Cosimo III of Tuscany, thus attaining the ambition of his life.

Magliabecchi became the central figure of literary life in Florence, and scholars of every nation sought his acquaintance and corresponded with him. He not only knew all the volumes in the library, as well as every other possible work, but could also tell the page and paragraph in which any passage occurred. In private life Magliabecchi was an eccentric old bachelor, negligent, dirty, slovenly, always reeking with tobacco, engaged in study at his meals, a Diogenes in his requirements. Every room in his house, and even the corridors and stairs, were crowded with books. He died at the monastery of Sta. Maria Novella. He left his books (30,000 volumes) to the Grand Duke to be used as a public library; his fortune went to the poor. The Magliabecchiana was combined with the grand-ducal private library (Palatina) by King Victor Emmanuel in 1861, the two forming the Biblioteca Nazionale. (taken, in part, from the Catholic Encyclopedia)

The figure in the background on  the reverse of this medal may be that of Diogenes, who is often depicted as a poor, balding man leaning hunched over on a staff, although the lamp often associated with Diogenes is not present.

LINK to Diogenes (from The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

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