Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja
Encyclopedia
Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja (born January 1, 1803 in Florence
, Italy
; died September 28, 1869, in Fiesole
, Italy) was an Italian count and mathematician
, who became known for his love and subsequent theft of ancient and precious manuscripts.
Appointed the Inspector of Libraries in France
, Libri began stealing the books he was responsible for, fleeing to England
when caught, along with 30,000 books and manuscripts inside 18 trunks. He was sentenced in France to 10 years in jail in absentia; some of the stolen works were returned when he died, but many remained missing.
In June 2010, one of the documents he stole—a letter from the French philosopher René Descartes
, dated May 27, 1641—was handed back to France after being found in a library in Haverford College
, in Pennsylvania
. The letter had been donated by the widow of a college alumnus in 1902, and was discovered only after a philosopher from Utrecht University
in the Netherlands
read about it on the Internet, and contacted the college to tell them what they had in their library; the existence of the letter had been known to philosophers, but not its contents. The letter was written by Descartes to Father Marin Mersenne
who had been overseeing the publication of Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy.
in 1816, starting to study law, but soon switching to mathematics. He graduated in 1820, his first works being praised by Babbage, Cauchy, and Gauss
.
In 1823, at the age of 20, he was appointed Professor of Mathematical Physics at Pisa
, but did not relish teaching and the following year went on sabbatical leave, traveling to Paris. There, he became friends with many of the most prominent French mathematicians of the day, including Laplace
, Poisson
, Ampère
, Fourier
and Arago
. Upon his return to Italy, he became involved in politics, conspiring with the secret society of the Carbonari
to advocate a liberal constitution in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany
.
Faced with arrest and prosecution, he fled to France and in 1833 became a French citizen. His friend Arago, the secretary of the Académie des sciences helped him obtain professorship at the Collège de France in 1833, succeeding the great mathematician Legendre
and in and 1834 he was elected as assistant professor in the calculus of probabilities at the Sorbonne
. He was elected to the Academy and given the Légion d'honneur
.
Although his friendship with Arago helped him obtain some these prestigious posts, eventually their relationship went sour and by 1835 they had become bitter enemies. Since Arago was a powerful figure in French mathematics at the time, many others in the mathematical establishment also became Libri's enemies, including Liouville
; the two would attack each other at every opportunity in meetings of the Academy.
Between 1838 and 1841 Count Libri wrote and published a four volume "History of the Mathematical Sciences in Italy from the Renaissance of literature to the 17th Century". His original research was partially based on some 1800 manuscripts and books by Galileo, Fermat, Descartes, Leibniz, and other luminaries which he claimed to have collected throughout his career; in fact, some of these, as it turned out, had been stolen in Florence
from the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana.
In 1841, Libri obtained an appointment as Chief Inspector of French Libraries through his friendship with influential French Chief of Police François Guizot
. This job, involving in part the cataloguing of valuable books and precious manuscripts allowed Count Libri to indulge his collecting passion by continuing to steal them, and although he was under suspicion, he was not investigated or charged. In 1848, as France was involved in a liberal revolution and the government fell, a warrant was issued for Libri's arrest.
, and was able to convince many that his problems in France had arisen because he was an Italian, not because the allegations against him had any substance.
On June 22, 1850, he was, however, found guilty of theft by a French Court and sentenced in absentia to 10 years imprisonment. His friend, the archaeologist and writer Prosper Mérimée
(1803–1870), argued in his favor and was prosecuted for this. Mérimée, the author among other stories and plays of "Carmen", had been convinced of Libri's innocence when the Count had told him that the missing French books and manuscripts must have been forgeries since the ones he had were the originals.
Although Libri had arrived in England with nothing but his books and manuscripts, he led a good life and acted the part of society lion. His money came from selling his books. Two large sales held in 1861 reputedly netted him over a million francs; this at a time when the average daily wage for a workman was about four francs.
were repurchased by the Italian Government in 1884 and are back in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. In 2010, one of the stolen items, a letter from Descartes to Father Marin Mersenne
concerning the publication of “Meditations on First Philosophy”, was discovered in the library of Haverford College
. The college has returned the letter to the
Institut de France
on June 8, 2010.
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
; died September 28, 1869, in Fiesole
Fiesole
Fiesole is a town and comune of the province of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany, on a famously scenic height above Florence, 8 km NE of that city...
, Italy) was an Italian count and mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
, who became known for his love and subsequent theft of ancient and precious manuscripts.
Appointed the Inspector of Libraries in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Libri began stealing the books he was responsible for, fleeing to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
when caught, along with 30,000 books and manuscripts inside 18 trunks. He was sentenced in France to 10 years in jail in absentia; some of the stolen works were returned when he died, but many remained missing.
In June 2010, one of the documents he stole—a letter from the French philosopher René Descartes
René Descartes
René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
, dated May 27, 1641—was handed back to France after being found in a library in Haverford College
Haverford College
Haverford College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States, a suburb of Philadelphia...
, in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. The letter had been donated by the widow of a college alumnus in 1902, and was discovered only after a philosopher from Utrecht University
Utrecht University
Utrecht University is a university in Utrecht, Netherlands. It is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands and one of the largest in Europe. Established March 26, 1636, it had an enrollment of 29,082 students in 2008, and employed 8,614 faculty and staff, 570 of which are full professors....
in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
read about it on the Internet, and contacted the college to tell them what they had in their library; the existence of the letter had been known to philosophers, but not its contents. The letter was written by Descartes to Father Marin Mersenne
Marin Mersenne
Marin Mersenne, Marin Mersennus or le Père Mersenne was a French theologian, philosopher, mathematician and music theorist, often referred to as the "father of acoustics"...
who had been overseeing the publication of Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy.
In Italy and France
He entered the University of PisaUniversity of Pisa
The University of Pisa , located in Pisa, Tuscany, is one of the oldest universities in Italy. It was formally founded on September 3, 1343 by an edict of Pope Clement VI, although there had been lectures on law in Pisa since the 11th century...
in 1816, starting to study law, but soon switching to mathematics. He graduated in 1820, his first works being praised by Babbage, Cauchy, and Gauss
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.Sometimes referred to as the Princeps mathematicorum...
.
In 1823, at the age of 20, he was appointed Professor of Mathematical Physics at Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
, but did not relish teaching and the following year went on sabbatical leave, traveling to Paris. There, he became friends with many of the most prominent French mathematicians of the day, including Laplace
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Pierre-Simon, marquis de Laplace was a French mathematician and astronomer whose work was pivotal to the development of mathematical astronomy and statistics. He summarized and extended the work of his predecessors in his five volume Mécanique Céleste...
, Poisson
Siméon Denis Poisson
Siméon Denis Poisson , was a French mathematician, geometer, and physicist. He however, was the final leading opponent of the wave theory of light as a member of the elite l'Académie française, but was proven wrong by Augustin-Jean Fresnel.-Biography:...
, Ampère
André-Marie Ampère
André-Marie Ampère was a French physicist and mathematician who is generally regarded as one of the main discoverers of electromagnetism. The SI unit of measurement of electric current, the ampere, is named after him....
, Fourier
Joseph Fourier
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier was a French mathematician and physicist best known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series and their applications to problems of heat transfer and vibrations. The Fourier transform and Fourier's Law are also named in his honour...
and Arago
François Arago
François Jean Dominique Arago , known simply as François Arago , was a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician.-Early life and work:...
. Upon his return to Italy, he became involved in politics, conspiring with the secret society of the Carbonari
Carbonari
The Carbonari were groups of secret revolutionary societies founded in early 19th-century Italy. The Italian Carbonari may have further influenced other revolutionary groups in Spain, France, Portugal and possibly Russia. Although their goals often had a patriotic and liberal focus, they lacked a...
to advocate a liberal constitution in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was a central Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Duchy of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence...
.
Faced with arrest and prosecution, he fled to France and in 1833 became a French citizen. His friend Arago, the secretary of the Académie des sciences helped him obtain professorship at the Collège de France in 1833, succeeding the great mathematician Legendre
Adrien-Marie Legendre
Adrien-Marie Legendre was a French mathematician.The Moon crater Legendre is named after him.- Life :...
and in and 1834 he was elected as assistant professor in the calculus of probabilities at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
. He was elected to the Academy and given the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
.
Although his friendship with Arago helped him obtain some these prestigious posts, eventually their relationship went sour and by 1835 they had become bitter enemies. Since Arago was a powerful figure in French mathematics at the time, many others in the mathematical establishment also became Libri's enemies, including Liouville
Joseph Liouville
- Life and work :Liouville graduated from the École Polytechnique in 1827. After some years as an assistant at various institutions including the Ecole Centrale Paris, he was appointed as professor at the École Polytechnique in 1838...
; the two would attack each other at every opportunity in meetings of the Academy.
Between 1838 and 1841 Count Libri wrote and published a four volume "History of the Mathematical Sciences in Italy from the Renaissance of literature to the 17th Century". His original research was partially based on some 1800 manuscripts and books by Galileo, Fermat, Descartes, Leibniz, and other luminaries which he claimed to have collected throughout his career; in fact, some of these, as it turned out, had been stolen in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
from the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana.
In 1841, Libri obtained an appointment as Chief Inspector of French Libraries through his friendship with influential French Chief of Police François Guizot
François Guizot
François Pierre Guillaume Guizot was a French historian, orator, and statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics prior to the Revolution of 1848, a conservative liberal who opposed the attempt by King Charles X to usurp legislative power, and worked to sustain a constitutional...
. This job, involving in part the cataloguing of valuable books and precious manuscripts allowed Count Libri to indulge his collecting passion by continuing to steal them, and although he was under suspicion, he was not investigated or charged. In 1848, as France was involved in a liberal revolution and the government fell, a warrant was issued for Libri's arrest.
In England
However he received a tip-off and fled to London, shipping 18 large trunks of books and manuscripts, about 30,000 items, before doing so. In London, he was assisted by Antonio Panizzi, the Director of the British Museum LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, and was able to convince many that his problems in France had arisen because he was an Italian, not because the allegations against him had any substance.
On June 22, 1850, he was, however, found guilty of theft by a French Court and sentenced in absentia to 10 years imprisonment. His friend, the archaeologist and writer Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée
Prosper Mérimée was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. He is perhaps best known for his novella Carmen, which became the basis of Bizet's opera Carmen.-Life:...
(1803–1870), argued in his favor and was prosecuted for this. Mérimée, the author among other stories and plays of "Carmen", had been convinced of Libri's innocence when the Count had told him that the missing French books and manuscripts must have been forgeries since the ones he had were the originals.
Although Libri had arrived in England with nothing but his books and manuscripts, he led a good life and acted the part of society lion. His money came from selling his books. Two large sales held in 1861 reputedly netted him over a million francs; this at a time when the average daily wage for a workman was about four francs.
Return to Italy, death and aftermath
In 1868, when his health started to deteriorate, Libri returned to Florence and died in Fiesole on September 28, 1869.Fate of the stolen manuscripts
Some 2,000 manuscripts which Libri had stolen in Italy and sold in London to Lord AshburnhamEarl of Ashburnham
The title Baron Ashburnham , of Ashburnham in the County of Sussex, was created in the Peerage of England in 1689 for John Ashburnham, grandson of the John Ashburnham who assisted King Charles I to escape from Oxford and Hampton Court Palace...
were repurchased by the Italian Government in 1884 and are back in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. In 2010, one of the stolen items, a letter from Descartes to Father Marin Mersenne
Marin Mersenne
Marin Mersenne, Marin Mersennus or le Père Mersenne was a French theologian, philosopher, mathematician and music theorist, often referred to as the "father of acoustics"...
concerning the publication of “Meditations on First Philosophy”, was discovered in the library of Haverford College
Haverford College
Haverford College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States, a suburb of Philadelphia...
. The college has returned the letter to the
Institut de France
Institut de France
The Institut de France is a French learned society, grouping five académies, the most famous of which is the Académie française.The institute, located in Paris, manages approximately 1,000 foundations, as well as museums and chateaux open for visit. It also awards prizes and subsidies, which...
on June 8, 2010.
External links
- Count Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland.