[ELCI, Angiolo Maria, Conte d’.]

RARE. Angiolo Maria Pannocchieschi, Conte d’Elci (1751-1824), was an Italian bibliophile and man of letters. He began building his collection in the early 1780s while touring the great capitals of Europe, before being forced to seek refuge with his books in Vienna during the Napoleonic wars. He returned to Florence after the Restauration and in 1818 donated his books to the state, to be housed in the Laurentian library in Florence. In 1841, Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, dedicated the Tribuna d’Elci to the Laurentian, a rotunda specially designed to house d’Elci’s collection.

D’Elci’s library included a large number of incunables, Aldines, first editions of the ancients, and some of the earliest editions of the Hebrew scriptures. The catalogue itself takes the form of an alphabetical list without notes, accompanied by a list of books printed on vellum, books without a year, and a list of all items arranged in chronological order of printing. ‘Catalogue d’une collection très-précieuse…il mérite d’être conservé, tout au moins comme un livre rare.’ Brunet I, 1640