| Carlo Pontifechio was born in Rome on 30 | | | | His fame spread throughout Italy, and he was |
| November 1645. His parents were very poor. He | | | | then hired by the Grand Duke of Tuscany who |
| had no proper schooling and when a young boy | | | | invited him to become his personal librarian. So as |
| he trained as a butcher. Carlo spent a lot of his | | | | to be able to handle the volume of material in the |
| time in the shop trying to work out what was on | | | | entire library, Carlo decided to develop his speed |
| the leaflets and newspapers that were used to | | | | reading abilities to a superhuman level. |
| wrap the meat. | | | | People around him reported that he could simply |
| One of the butcher's regular customers was a | | | | open a page at random, apparently taking in all |
| bookseller who noted Marco's attempts to read | | | | the contents with only one or two looks. His |
| the strange hieroglyphics before him. The | | | | reputation for speed reading grew and grew, until |
| bookseller took him to his own shop and Marco | | | | he was able to comprehend perfectly virtually |
| was at once able to recognise, remember and | | | | anything that was put before him. |
| identify all the books. With the bookseller's help, he | | | | There is further evidence to suggest that his |
| eventually learned to read properly, then at | | | | powers of concentration were so great that he |
| colossal speeds. He also had phenomenal | | | | didn't even hear his name when it was shouted |
| memorising techniques which enabled him to | | | | out aloud more than six times. And he was able |
| remember nearly all he read in their entirety. | | | | to do all of this without ever having attended a |
| Someone who doubted the boy's reputation for | | | | course in Fast Effective Reading or Speed |
| speed reading, comprehension and retention gave | | | | Reading as it is often called these days, more |
| Carlo a new manuscript that he could never have | | | | than three hundred years or so later. |
| seen before, telling him to read it for pleasure. | | | | If Carlo's eyes and brain were able to perform |
| Carlo read the text at a very fast speed. The | | | | such feats of speed, concentration, |
| person pretended that he had lost his manuscript | | | | comprehension and retention, why do we crawl |
| and asked Carlo to help him to remember what | | | | along at speeds which make us seem virtually |
| was in it. To his astonishment, Carlo wrote out | | | | illiterate? |
| the whole of the book for him, writing every | | | | The answer lies perhaps in the fact that we have |
| word correctly, with every punctuation mark in | | | | actively and unwittingly trained ourselves to |
| place. | | | | become slow. In other words, we believe we |
| After some time, Carlo read at very fast speeds | | | | cannot read fast so we find it almost impossible. |
| and memorized more and more books. He finally | | | | Such notions have destroyed our ability to read |
| became so well known for the speed at which he | | | | faster with good comprehension. Maybe rapid |
| read. Whenever he was asked questions he | | | | reading should be taught at a very early age |
| responded by quoting verbatim from the books | | | | when just about anything is possible! |
| he had read and memorized. | | | | |