ANTONIO, a person of great learning, and remarkable for an amazing memory, was born at Florence in the year 1633. His father died when he was only seven years of age. His mother had him taught grammar and drawing, and then put him as apprentice to one of the best goldsmiths in Florence. When he was about sixteen years old, his passion for learning began to appear; and he laid out all his money in buying books. Becoming acquainted with Michel Ermini, librarian to the Cardinal de' Medici, he perfected himself by his assistance in the Latin tongue, and in a little time became master of the Hebrew. His name soon became famous amongst the learned. A prodigious memory formed his distinguishing talent; and he retained not only the sense of what he had read, but frequently all the words, and the very manner of spelling. It is said that a gentleman, to make trial of the force of his memory, lent him a manuscript he was going to print. Some time after it was returned, the gentleman, going to him with a melancholy countenance, pretended it was lost, and requested Magliabechi to recollect what he remembered of it; upon which he wrote the whole, without missing a word. He generally shut himself up the whole day, and opened his doors in the evening to the men of letters who came to converse with him. His attention was so absorbed by his studies, that he often forgot the most urgent wants of nature. Cosmo III. grand duke of Florence, made him his librarian; but he still continued negligent in his dress, and simple in his manners. An old cloak served him for a morning gown in the day, and for bed-clothes at night. The duke, however, provided for him a commodious apartment in his palace, which he was with difficulty persuaded to take possession of, but which he quitted four months afterwards, and returned to his house. He was remarkable for his extraordinary modesty, his sincerity, and his beneficence, which his friends often experienced in their wants. He was a patron of men of learning, and had the highest pleasure in assisting them with his advice and information, and in furnishing them with books and manuscripts. He had the utmost aversion to anything that looked like constraint, and therefore the grand duke always dispensed with his personal attendance, and sent him his orders in writing. Though he lived a very sedentary life, he reached the eighty-first year of his age; and died amidst the regrets of the public, after enjoying, during the latter part of his life, such influence as few have ever procured by their learning. By his will, he left a very fine library to the public, with a fund for its support. See the article LIBRARIES.