Pinelli, John Vincent

, an Italian nobleman, celebrated for his love of letters, and the library he formed, and well compared by Thuanus to Pomponius Atticus, was born at Naples, in 1533, the son of a noble Genoese. After having received an excellent education, he went and settled at Padua, at the age of twenty-four, and early in life began to form his library, which he collected from all parts with incredible diligence. Lipsius, Jos. Scaliger, Sigonius, Pancirollus, Pithou, and all the most learned men of his time, corresponded with him, and have celebrated him for erudition. His whole mind was occupied with the love of knowledge, which embraced history, | medals, antiquities, natural history, and botany; and it is said, that in forty -three years he never was out of Padua, except twice, one of which times his removal was occasioned by the plague. He died in 1601. At his death, his library was removed to his heirs at Naples, in 130 cases, fourteen of which were full of manuscripts. Two hundred volumes were retained by the republic of Venice, as treating of affairs pertaining to that state. In 1790, this noble library, augmented considerably by the descendants of this Pinelli, was purchased by Messrs. Edwards and llobson, two eminent booksellers, and sold by auction in London; and thus in a few weeks was dissipated, what it had been the labour of near two centuries to collect. ¹