scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2186179

Gugliemo Libri was one of the most important and controversial cultural figures in Europe during the first half of the nineteenth century. He was a mathematician, historian, patriot, journalist, an erudite man of letters, a collector and seller of antique books and much more, both good or bad. Libri assembled one of the greatest and best stocked private libraries in Europe, later dispersed through a series of auctions in London between 1859 and 1844. The sale catalogues which he drew up himself, provide a great deal of information about his library and are of great bibliographical relevance. A huge collection of valuable autograph documents and manuscript treatises remained in his possession after the London sales, but unfortunately we have not catalogues or inventories of them. The dispersal of the contents of his will began immediately after his death. The Biblioteca Moreniana of Florence is one of the four European libraries where the most part of the Archives of Guglielmo Libri are preserved. The others are: the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, the Archives Nationales the France, The British Library. The materials coming from the Libri's archives present at the Biblioteca Moreniana are contained into three collections respectively named: \textit{Palagi-Libri, Nuovo Fondo Libri, Carte Libri}. The first one was bought in 1882, the second one in 1959, the last in 1999. The book by Del Centina and Fiocca has been written with the aim of sheding some light on the dispersal of Libri's archives through a cronology of events and the words of the protagonists themselves. The book includes a catalogue of the last sold collection preceded by a long essay also translated in English and divided into four chapters: I. The life and works of Guglielmo Libri II. The dispersal of the Archive, III. In-depth studies, IV. An appraisal of the ``Libri collection at the Moreniana Library. In particular the last chapter intends to give an initial contribution to the appraisal of the historical mathematical material in \textit{Palagi-Libri} and \textit{Nuovo Fondo Libri} collections. The last part of the book contains an accurate catalogue of the \textit{Carte Libri} collection formed by 418 letters from G.L. or adressed to him, 29 receipts of payment of booksellers, 2 manuscripts, 2 expences books and a Libri portrait. The letters are collected in groups according to the sender. For each letter is given a complete set of informations and a summary. This book follows another one edited by \textit{A. Del Centina} where the original manuscript is reproduced in fac-simile of the famous ``Mémoire sur une propriété générale d'une class très etendue de fonctiones trascendantes written by \textit{N. H. Abel} preserved in the collection \textit{Fondo Palagi} of the Moreniana Library. [See Abel's Parisian manuscript preserved in the Moreniana Library of Florence (Cultura e Memoria 25, Firence: Leo S. Olschki) (2002; Zbl 1063.01011)].

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