have seen,
even the logs of recent voyages, and the pickings of "grocers'
waste-paper." In each case the industry of the collector was constantly
rewarded by the discovery of valuable literary materials, which would
have been lost under ordinary circumstances. The library of Pinelli was
augmented by that of his friend Paul Aicardo, the two _literati_ having
entered into an undertaking that the survivor should possess the whole
fruit of their labours. On Pinelli's death, in 1601, his family
determined to transfer his books to Naples. The Venetian government
interfered on the ground that, though Pinelli had been allowed to copy
the archives and registers of the State, it had never been intended that
the information should be communicated to a foreign power. Their
magistrate seized a hundred bales of books, of which fourteen were packed
with MSS. On examination it appeared that there were about three hundred
volumes of political commentaries, dealing with the affairs of all the
Italian States; and it was arranged, by way of compromise, that these
should remain at Padua in a repository under the charge of an official
guardian. The rest of the library was despatched in three shiploads from
Genoa. One vessel was captured by pirates, and the cargo was thrown
overboard, only a few volumes being afterwards cast ashore. The other
ships arrived safely at Naples; but it appears that the new proprietors
had little taste for literature. The whole remaining stock was found some
years afterwards in a mouldy garret, packed in ninety bales; and it was
purchased at last for 3000 crowns by Cardinal Frederic Borromeo, who
used it as the basis for the Ambrosian Library which he was at that time
establishing in Milan. Another library was afterwards founded at Venice
by members of the Pinelli family engaged in the Levantine trade. On the
death of its last possessor, Maffeo Pinelli, in 1787, the collection was
sold to a firm of English booksellers. It seems by Dibdin's account to
have been in a poor condition, though Dr. Harwood declared that, 'there
being no dust in Venice,' it had reposed for some centuries in excellent
preservation. This immense body of books was re-sold in London two years
afterwards at prices which barely covered the expenses incurred, though a
large amount was obtained for a copy of the Polyglott Bible of Ximenes in
six folio volumes printed upon vellum.

The praises of the great Pinelli were spread abroad by Scaliger, De