Count Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja (born January 1, 1803 in Florence, Italy; died September 28, 1869, in Fiesole, Italy) was an Italian mathematician and a book thief. A count is a nobleman in most European countries, equivalent in rank to a British earl, whose wife is also still a countess (for lack of an Anglo-Saxon term). ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... 1803 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Florences skyline Florence (Italian: ) is the capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy. ... September 28 is the 271st day of the year (272nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1869 (MDCCCLXIX) is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Florence as seen from Fiesole Fiesole is a town and comune (township) of Firenze province in the Italian region of Tuscany, 43°49N 11°18E, on a famously scenic height 346 m (1140 ft) above Florence, 8 km (5 mi) NE of that city. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

He entered the University of Pisa in 1816, starting to study law, but soon switching to mathematics. He graduated in 1820, his first works being noted by Charles Babbage, Cauchy, and Gauss. Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Tyrrhenian Sea. ... Charles Babbage (26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English mathematician, analytical philosopher, mechanical engineer and (proto-) computer scientist who originated the idea of a programmable computer. ... Augustin Louis Cauchy Augustin Louis Cauchy (August 21, 1789 – May 23, 1857) was a French mathematician. ... Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and physicist. ...

In 1823, at the age of 20, he was appointed Professor of Mathematical Physics at Pisa, but did not relish teaching and the following year went on sabbatical leave, traveling to Paris. There, he became friends with many of the most prominent French mathematicians of the day. Upon his return to Italy, he became involved in politics, conspiring with the secret society of the "Carbonari" to advocate a liberal constitution in the Grandukedom of Tuscany. A flowered corn field in Tuscany. ...

Faced with arrest and prosecution, he fled to France and in 1833 became a French citizen. He then became a professor at the College of France, was elected to the Academie of Sciences and given the "Legion d'Honour".

Between 1838 and 1841 Count Libri wrote and published a four volumes "History of the Mathemathical Sciences in Italy from the Renaissance to the 17th Century". His original research was partially based on some 1800 manuscripts and books by Galileo, Fermat, Descartes, Leibniz, and other luminaries which he claimed to have collected throughout his career; in fact, some of these, as it turned out, had been stolen in Florence from the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana.

In 1841, Libri obtained an appointment as Chief Inspector of French Libraries through his friendship with influential French Chief of Police Francois Guizot. This job, involving in part the cataloguing of valuable books and precious manuscripts allowed Count Libri to indulge his colling passion by continuing to steal them, and although he was undes suspicion, he was not investigated or charged. François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (October 4, 1787 -September 12, 1874) was a French historian, orator and statesman. ...

In 1848, as France was involved in a liberal revolution and the government fell, a warrant was issued for Libri's arrest. Tipped off, he fled to London, shipping 18 large trunks of books and manuscripts, about 30,000 items, before doing so. In London, he was assisted by Antonio Panizzi, the Director of the British Museum Library, and was able to convince many that his problems in France had arisen because he was an Italian, not because the allegations against him had any substance. Antonio Genesio Maria Panizzi (1797 - 1879), better known as Anthony Panizzi, was a British librarian of Italian birth. ...

On June 22, 1850, he was, however, found guilty of theft by a French Court and sentenced in absentia to 10 years imprisonment. His friend, the archaeologist and writer Prosper Merimee (1803-1870), argued in his favor and was prosecuted for this. Merimee, the author among other stories and plays of "Carmen" (on which Georges Bizet opera is based), had been convinced of Libri's innocence when the Count had told him that the missing French books and manuscripts must have been forgeries since the ones he had were the originals! Prosper Mérimée (September 28, 1803 - September 23, 1870) was a French dramatist, historian, archaeologist, and short story writer. ... Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (October 25, 1838 – June 3, 1875) was a French composer and pianist of the romantic era. ...

Although Libri had arrived in England with nothing but his books and manuscripts, he led a good life and acted the part of society lion. His money came from selling his books. Two large sales held in 1861 reputedly netted him over a million francs; this at a time when the average daily wage for a workman was about four francs.

In 1868, when his health started to deteriorate, Libri returned to Florence and died in Fiesole on September 28,1869. Incidentally, some 2,000 manuscripts which Libri had stolen in Italy and sold in London to Lord Beltram were repurchased by the Italian Government in 1884 and are back in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. "Libri" in Italian means "Books". How appropiate for a book thief!