Lorenzo Tondo writes: “Firefighters in Sicily have rescued about 400 rare books from the private Angelo Marsiano library in Niscemi that hangs on the edge of a mudflow, after a devastating landslide in January tore away an entire slope of the town. The library stands on the lip of the precipice gouged out by the landslide, with part of the building in effect hanging in mid-air. The library holds about 4,000 books of literature, history, and general nonfiction, including a number of rare editions dating from before 1830 on Sicilian history.”