Una Biblioteca, un Libro - Antonio Magliabechi, una biblioteca “ad uso dei poveri” di Firenze

Antonio Magliabechi, born in Florence in 1633, a scholar and librarian to the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, was at the center of a dense network of relationships with scholars and booksellers from across Europe, which allowed him to gather in his library a large portion of European book production between the 17th and 18th centuries. A surly man, slovenly dressed, and disheveled, but blessed with an exceptional memory, he maintained an exceptionally important correspondence with scholars from across Europe. Upon his death in 1714, he left his thirty thousand volumes and all his possessions to the city of Florence to establish a library "for the use of the poor." The Magliabechiana Library opened to the public in 1747 and since 1861 has constituted the original nucleus of the National Central Library of Florence.