My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Using Plutarch’s Parallel Lives model of comparing and contrasting two people, Spence chose Antonio Magliabechi (1633-1713) of Florence and Robert Hill (1699-1777) of England. The former was a famed bibliophile, scholar and librarian to Cosimo III de' Medici. The latter was much lesser known, who worked as a tailor and taught himself Latin, Greek and Hebrew to study the bible and religion.

Following Plutarch, the text is laid out in three parts: an essay on Magliabechi, one on Hill and then a compare and contrast of the two people. The first two parts were fascinating and filled with interesting trivia. The final piece sought to show how similar the two were but Spence then illustrates how Hill was the better person in that he wasn’t simply a repository of information with an eidetic memory as Magliabechi seemed to be, but that Hill was able to exercise judgement and use the knowledge he gained.

A very enjoyable and fast read.