Contemporaries

Marsili was a keen seeker of precious volumes and regularly frequented antiquarians and booksellers who put back into circulation volumes that belonged to famous and less famous citizens of his era, but he also managed to obtain gifts from great personalities with whom he probably had a casual acquaintance.

PAGE INDEX

• Teodoro Bondoni (1717–1789)
• James Caulfeild (1753–1836)
• Caterina Dolfin (1730–1808)
• Jean Jacques Dortous de Mairan (1678–1771)
• Victor Riqueti conte di Mirabeau (1691–1757)
• Giacomo Soranzo (1686–1761)

TEODORO BONDONI (XVIII century)

Ex-libris with coat of arms of the Bondoni family Don Teodoro Bondoni was the secretary in Bologna of the Marquis Ferdinando Cospi (1606-1686), whose service he had joined when he was very young; he was also tutor to his nephew and an agent of the Marquis both on the antiques market and with regard to the Medici Family, to whom the nobleman, a collector in turn and founder of the Museo cospiano proposed the purchase of works of art and antiques, curiosities and drawings. The ex-libris engraved and glued on the title page of a volume studying snails (BOT.6.169), represents the coat of arms of the family.

JAMES CAULFEILD (1728–1799)

Pompeo Batoni, circa 1753-56 (from Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection) Fourth Viscount – and following the merits earned in the service of James I Stuart – first Count of Charlemont, here in a portrait painted by Pompeo Batoni. A man of letters and a politician from Ireland, who was in favour of his country's independence, he spent nine years travelling in Italy, Greece and Turkey.

Marsili met him on his way back to England on an unspecified day in September 1758, as recorded on the front endpaper of the book that he obtained as a gift from the Lord: a biography of Philip of Macedonia written by Thomas Leland (BOT.1.41).

The volume, however, must have been originally intended for others, as evidenced by another dedication, carefully deleted, but of which one can read some words, placed on the reverse side of the front cover:
[Je vous?] prie Monsieur le Comte de Ca[glio..?] / de vouloir bien accepter [cette?] copie d'un / Ouvrage qui a ete tres bien reçu en / Angleterre ................ [une?] petite copie de /....... attent[ion?] ..... et encoura[gement?]

Gift note by Marsili (Biblioteca Universitaria)

CATERINA DOLFIN (1736–1793)

In the Marsili Library there is also a book that belonged to a woman: Caterina Dolfin (1736-1793), poetess in Arcadia with the name of Dorina Nonacrinia, a Venetian noblewoman and promoter of a literary salon frequented, among others, by Gaspare Gozzi, Gian Rinaldo Carli, Angelo Calogerà, and owner of a rich library. In 1772, the Inquisitors of the State burst into her house and seized several prohibited volumes of French Enlightenment such as Hélvetius, Rousseau, Voltaire, helping to discredit her honour, which had already been damaged following her relationship with the patrician Andrea Tron (who she was able to marry in that year after having obtained the annulment of her first marriage with Marcantonio Tiepolo). In 1788 she bought a house in Padova and at the time of her death, all her books passed to Alvise Barbarigo, son of Luisa Tron, her sister-in-law, except for a part that passed to Zanotto from Prata di Pordenone and from Rorai piccolo di Porcia.
The ex-libris with the three dolphins of the family coat of arms and the hand written signature can be found on the Bue Pedagogo, a polemical booklet written by Appiano Buonafede, a Celestine monk (1716-1793) against Giuseppe Baretti for his criticism of his "Saggio di commedie filosofiche" in the "Frusta Letteraria" (The Literary Whip) of June 15, 1764.

Il bue pedagogo: endpaper with ex-libris and title page with note of possession of Caterina Dolfin (Biblioteca Universitaria, BOT.5.143)

JEAN JACQUES DORTOUS DE MAIRAN (1678–1771)

Engraving by P. C. Ingouf, from L. Tocquet (Wellcome Collection Library) Title page with autographed note by Dortous de Mairan in Eloges des Academiciens de l'Academie Royale des Sciences (Biblioteca Universitaria, BOT.4.148)

Two volumes were donated by the French astronomer, a scholar of ice and the aurora borealis, and secretary of the Academie del Sciences: the first, a study on kinetic force, with his own autographed dedication to Marsili, who perhaps had the opportunity to meet him on his trip to Paris (BOT.7.36.6) and the other, with the Eloges des academiciens on which the Prefect himself notes: gift from the author (BOT.4.148).

Hand note of Marsili in BOT.7.36.6

VICTOR DE RIQUETI marquis of MIRABEAU (1753–1836)

Portrait of Victor de Riqueti. Joseph Aved (ante 1744) (from Wikimedia Commons) Gift note of Marsili in Examen des poesies sacr̩es de M. Le Franc (Biblioteca Universitaria, BOT.5.190) Jean Jacques Le Franc de Pompignan published four volumes of Poesies sacrees: in the following edition of 1755 they were joined by the Examen des poesies sacrees de M. Le Franc in which Victor Mirabeau Рfather of the more famous Honore-Gabriel, revolutionary and pamphleteer- portrayed alongside in a panel kept in the Louvre, expresses an evaluation of the work.

A copy of the essay was sent by Victor himself to Marsili, who punctually notes it in French on the page with the subheading: Present de l'Auter Mr. le Marquis de Mirabeau.

GIACOMO SORANZO (1753–1836)

Photo: Carla Lestani Palazzo Soranzo Cappello, now the seat of the Soprintendenza Archeologica, Belle Arti e Paesaggio (Archaeological, Fine Arts and Landscape Superintendence) for the Municipality of Venice and the Lagoon, was the treasure chest in which Giacomo Soranzo, Senator of the Republic (1686-1761) collected and preserved about four thousand manuscripts and twenty thousand printed books. At the time of his death, however, the entire collection left to his grandchildren was sold and dispersed: while the codices were purchased by Teodoro Correr and Abbot Canonici, the printed books were almost all bought by the bookseller Carlo Scapin of Padova, who had the shop at the outlet of Via dei Fabbri in Piazza delle Erbe at Leon d'Oro and then in the very central Via Cavour; from him, probably in turn, Marsili bought them (Amedei 2001, 28-30).

The Fund located in the University Library contains nine volumes, all marked with the date of purchase and the owner's signature.

Various autograph notes by Giacomo Soranzo from volumes BOT.5.163, BOT.4.17, BOT.4.18, BOT.4.196, BOT.6.207, BOT.6.213