Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/100

 among his protégés were the Florentine Zuccarelli and the Venetian Zais. Horace Walpole sneered at him as ‘the merchant of Venice,’ who knew nothing of his books except their title-pages (, Letters, i. 239–307), but the censure seems undeserved. In 1729 Smith prepared an edition of Boccaccio's ‘Decamerone,’ which was published by Passinello (, Bibliographical Dictionary, i. 201). It is so nearly an exact reproduction of the rare edition of 1527 that only those who are acquainted with the minute differences can distinguish the copy from the original. Of Smith's edition only three hundred copies were printed, including a few on large paper; these latter are extremely rare, a fire having destroyed a portion of the edition (see Vita di G. Boccaccio, Firenze, 1806, p. 311). About the same time Smith issued a ‘Catalogus Librorum Rarissimorum’ (without date), which was limited to twenty-five copies. The volumes noticed were in Smith's own possession. A second edition, containing the titles of thirty-one additional books, was published in Venice in 1737. Of his general library a catalogue was printed at Venice in 1755, under the title ‘Bibliotheca Smithiana, seu Catalogus Librorum D. Josephi Smithii Angli.’

Meanwhile in 1740 Smith was appointed British consul at Venice, and was thenceforth known familiarly as Consul Smith. He retained the post till 1760. In 1765 George III began to form his library by purchasing Smith's books en bloc for 10,000l., and they now form an important part of the king's library at the British Museum. Smith continued to collect, and at his death the books which he had acquired subsequently to the sale of his library to George III were sold at public auction in London by Baker & Leigh in January and February 1773, the sale occupying thirteen days. His art treasures also were bought by George III for 20,000l. (see Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, 1570–1870, ii. 469). A valuable portion of his manuscripts was purchased for Blenheim Palace by Lord Sunderland, who gave, according to Humphry Wanley's ‘Diary,’ 1,500l. for them (Lansdowne MS. 771, fol. 34). Smith's antique gems were described and illustrated in A. F. Gori's ‘Dactyliotheca Smithiana,’ 2 vols. folio, 1767.

Smith died at Venice on 6 Nov. 1770, aged 88. About 1758 he married a sister of John Murray, resident at Venice, and afterwards ambassador at the Porte (see Letters and Works, ed. 1893, ii. 319).

 SMITH, JOSHUA TOULMIN, who after 1854 was always known as (1816–1869), publicist and constitutional lawyer, born on 29 May 1816 at Birmingham, was eldest son of William Hawkes Smith (1786–1840), of that town, an economic and educational reformer. His great-grandmother was sister to [q. v.], and his great-grandfather Dr. [q. v.] Joshua was educated at home and at a private school at Hale, Cheshire, kept by Charles Wallace. An eager student of literature and philosophy, he was at first destined for the unitarian ministry, but that vocation was abandoned in favour of the law, and at sixteen he was articled to a local solicitor. Removing in 1835 to London, he was entered at Lincoln's Inn with a view to the bar. Meanwhile he showed a precocious literary activity. At seventeen he wrote an ‘Introduction to the Latin Language’ for a class at the Birmingham Mechanics' Institute, and in 1836 produced a work on ‘Philosophy among the Ancients.’

Marrying in 1837 Martha, daughter of William Jones Kendall of Wakefield, he went to the United States, first settling at Detroit, then at Utica, and afterwards in Boston. At Boston he lectured, chiefly on phrenology and on philosophy. Attracted by Rafn's publication at Copenhagen of the narratives of early Icelandic voyages to America, he published in 1839 ‘The Discovery of America by the Northmen in the Tenth Century,’ a study from the originals, which he was the first to introduce to English readers; the work gained him the diploma of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Copenhagen. Several other minor publications, educational and historical, occupied his pen till, in 1842, he returned to England, and, settling at Highgate, near London, resumed his legal studies, and was called to the bar in 1849. At this period he found recreation in the pursuit of geology. Especially directing his attention to the upper chalk, he printed a series of papers (Ann. and Mag. of Natural History, August 1847–May 1848, issued as a volume 1848) on ‘The Ventriculidæ of the Chalk.’ The monograph, which was illustrated by his own pencil, was based on laborious microscopic investigations; it established the true character, hitherto imperfectly known, of the class of fossils of which it treated, and still remains a chief authority on the subject. This work drew round him the leading geologists